Strangers in Paradise: To Whom It May Concern
by theopshop
Summary: Twenty years after finding the book that would change their lives, four friends are drawn into another conspiracy, this one more sinister than any they've encountered yet, as they find themselves caught between an old friend and and old enemy. Spoilers, moderate suggestive themes, mild violence and slight coarse language.
1. Prologue

_Almost twenty years ago, Jordan, Rachel, Maddy and Brittany were thrown onto a mysterious island of beauty, intrigue and treachery after finding a book buried in the desert sands. They met and freed their host, a man called Atrus, from the prison where he had been stranded by his sons. Several months later, they helped Atrus again by rescuing his wife, Catherine, from her prison on her home world ruled over by Atrus' father. Doing so allowed the four strangers to return home via the same path that brought the book to them originally._

_Safely home, the four strangers thought that was the last they would see of Atrus and his books, until he turned up on their doorstep ten years later, inviting them to come and see the new home he had crafted for his people, the D'ni. Before they could, however, a man appeared in Atrus' new home and stole the book linking them to the new D'ni home world, Releeshahn. It was up to the strangers to recover the book from the hands of a vengeful, broken man._

_With Atrus, Catherine and their new daughter Yeesha now living on the surface, not too far from the desert compound where Jordan and Rachel live, the four strangers were able to maintain a closer friendship with Atrus and Catherine. But ten years later, things were about to flare up again as old wounds reopened and threatened to create more chaos in their lives than ever before..._

* * *

**Prologue**

Alone on the age written as a prison for the greedy, he stands. He's close now. It won't be long. A few days at most... less if he's lucky. And then... then it would be time. Time at last. A twenty year hiatus was not going to stop him... only make him more determined. He sat down and looked up at the sky.

"It's time, Father. It's time."

* * *

"What's cooking?"

Rachel turned around to see Maddy in the kitchen doorway. She smiled.

"Lasagne. Have a seat."

"Anything I can do to help?"

"Yeah." Rachel straightened up and smiled again. "You can have a seat. The last time you helped me cook, I had to buy a new oven."

Maddy grinned as she sat down. "Good times." She paused. "I can't believe Britt and Irvan have been going for two years now."

Rachel set the timer. "I can't believe she picked up a D'ni guy."

"I can't believe she picked up anyone."

"Oh, come on," replied Rachel. "Any guy would be lucky to have her."

"Then explain why she's been single for the entire twenty-five years I've known her, except the last two? There's playing hard to get, and then there's just being stubborn."

"Have you looked at the male population of this town? All the guys who are any good are taken."

"Like Jordan."

"Like Jordan. Thank you for acknowledging my good taste in men."

"You've dated literally two men in your entire life, one of whom you've been married to for nearly thirteen years. You've been dating for how long?"

"Since I was fifteen." Rachel paused, then continued somewhat defensively. "Yeah, well, I kinda fell for him. Best decision of my life to ask him out." She cleared her throat. "But as I was saying, most of the men that aren't taken aren't worth more than one date. And those that are fall apart when you get to – well, you know what I mean."

"Oh, come on."

"I'll prove it." Rachel sat down at the table. "How many men have you dated recently?"

"Recently? Like, in the past two years?"

"Okay, sure."

Maddy pasued, counting under her breath. "Seven."

"Okay. How many of those did you have more than one date with?"

Maddy paused again, counting. "Three."

"So presumably you thought that those three were reasonable prospects for a serious relationship."

"Well, yeah."

"And how many of those did you break off with after sleeping with them?"

Maddy blushed. "Three." She paused. "Okay, now I get what you're saying."

"Yeah." Rachel grinned cheekily.

The front door opened and Jane came barrelling into the kitchen, almost knocking Maddy off her chair. Not only was it Friday, it was the beginning of the summer holidays, and Jane, just like any ten-year-old at such a time, was not short of energy.

"Hi Mum hi Mad school was good Dad's coming see you," said Jane with one breath whilst still moving, and barrelled out the door, only to be stopped by her father catching her by the shoulder.

"Don't forget, Brittany and her boyfriend are coming for dinner tonight," said Jordan, smiling despite himself. Jane sighed.

"I know..."

"So you have to come out and eat with us."

"I know..."

"It's lasagne."

"I know..."

"I'm sure it'll mean a lot to Brittany."

"I know..."

"Did you give your mother a kiss?"

Jane paused. "Yes."

"No," weighed in Rachel. Jordan chuckled.

"Go on, get back in there."

Jordan and Jane entered the kitchen. Jane went quickly to Rachel, kissed her, and left the room in a hurry. Jordan stood by the door looking out until he heard the door close, then turned and came over to the table.

"Hi, Rach." He kissed her, then sat down. "Hey, Mop."

"Hello, dear," smiled Rachel. "How was work?"

"Well, you know... it's a sorting office... I sort letters."

"Sounds like a hoot," said Maddy, getting up. "Mind if I make a cup of tea?"

"I'll do it," said Jordan, getting up, "I could go for one myself."

"Sit down," replied Maddy with a wave, "I'll do it."

Jordan sat back down. Rachel looked at him with a slight smile, and Jordan shrugged. There was a knock at the front door.

"Come in," called Jordan. The front door opened; Brittany entered the lounge room and made her way to the kitchen.

"Ah, here she is. The lovebird," said Maddy with a devilish grin, making Brittany blush.

"So two years, Britt?" intervened Jordan. "You must have found yourself a keeper."

"I hope so," replied Brittany enthusiastically. "He's handsome, caring, quiet, good at listening..."

"Well endowed..." ventured Maddy.

"Gahro tiwah," shot back Brittany. "If you can't work out what that means there is something wrong with you."

There was another knock at the front door. Brittany got up to answer it. Jordan turned to Maddy.

"Be supportive, Mop. It's great that Britt has a steady boyfriend. You're her friend; you should be happy for her."

"I am," replied Maddy. "I just like teasing her. It's our routine."

The oven timer went off. Rachel got up to get the lasagne out. Jordan looked at his watch, then leant back on his chair and called out the kitchen door.

"Food's ready, you two!" There was a pause and some giggling. Jordan sighed. "Also, there's a time and place for everything and my lounge room is not the place!"

Brittany entered the kitchen again, this time accompanied by a tall, youngish man with pale blue eyes, light brown hair and goggles on his head. Jordan gestured for them to sit down with one hand whilst accepting a cup of tea from Maddy with the other.

"Hi, Irvan," said Rachel over her shoulder whilst cutting up lasagne. "How are you?"

"Not bad, thank you, Rachel," replied Irvan, pronouncing her name correctly as he had learnt to do but still with a rather heavy accent on the A. "How are you?"

"Dreading the impending school holidays," replied Rachel with the sigh of an already-tired mother. "Hopefully we can fob Jane off on Atrus and Catherine for a bit. They didn't mind too much last time..."

* * *

About an hour and a half later, after they had all eaten and were sitting talking in the lounge room (Jane somewhat reluctantly), Irvan stood and stretched.

"Well, I don't mean to be rude," he said with a sigh, "but I should probably get going. Thank you very much for the delicious dinner." He shook hands with Jordan, Rachel and Jane, tried to shake hands with Maddy but got roped into hugging her, kissed Brittany and turned back to Rachel.

"If it's not too much trouble... would you mind if I used your Eder B'lontahv linking book? I would go back to Britt's house and use hers, but it's already fifth gahrtahvo on Releeshahn and I need to be up early tomorrow."

"Oh! Of course," replied Rachel, and fetched the slightly worn book from its stand in the bedroom. She flicked it open to the last page and offered the panel to Irvan.

"Thank you." He patted himself down, in his characteristic way of making sure he hadn't left anything behind. "Oh! I almost forgot." He pulled an envelope out of his top pocket. "Atrus asked me to give you this." He handed the envelope to Jordan, who flicked his glasses onto the end of his nose and looked down at the envelope. It was neatly addressed in Atrus' handwriting to him, Rachel, Maddy and Brittany.

"Okay, thanks," said Jordan, and slit the envelope open.

"You're welcome," replied Irvan. There was a brief pause. "I should probably go in case that's private stuff. Bye."

"Yeah, see you later," said Maddy with a smile.

"Behave yourself," said Irvan to Brittany with a grin. He touched his right hand to the book held out by Rachel and was consumed by the air with a roar and rush of wind.

"So come on, Jordan," said Brittany, "read the letter."

* * *

_My friends,_

_Please accept my apologies for not being able to attend your dinner today. Catherine and I have been distracted by other matters of late. I am, however, writing to ask you a favour._

_Twenty years ago you freed me from my prison in K'veer and helped me to save Catherine and imprison my father for good. For that alone I can never thank you enough. And then, ten years later you helped Catherine and I start our new life in Tomahna and restore the D'ni civilization by rescuing the Releeshahn book from Saavedro. I will never be able to thank you enough for that. And yet, I must ask more of you. But first, I must make a confession._

_You see, my friends, for the last twenty years I've harboured a secret. People – the D'ni, people of other ages, even Catherine – talk about my sons, and the evil things they did to my ages and their inhabitants. But I have always remained silent on this subject. I do not talk about those events, or the rage that filled me as I burned the two books that had ensnared them._

_You never asked me about those books. I should have told you then, but I foolishly remained silent. You see, some people believe my sons were killed in those fires. But the truth is, they were not._

_My friends, there is much more to this story, but I must tell you myself rather than in a letter. You are the only ones I can possibly confide in. So I need you to come to Tomahna tomorrow morning. There are things I must tell you about my sons._

_Your indebted friend, Atrus._

* * *

As Jordan finished reading the letter, there was silence in the room. Finally, Jane spoke up.

"So we're going to Tomahna tomorrow?"

"Looks like it," replied Rachel.

"Well, we'll be here bright and early in the morning, then," sighed Maddy. "Loving the early starts on Saturday morning."


	2. Spark

**1 – Spark**

Brittany's watch alarm beeped. It wasn't a loud beep, but she did have the watch right next to her ear, so it was loud enough. She sat up with a groan.

It looked like she was the first one awake. She got up off the mattress on the floor and went into the kitchen. Digging through the cupboards, she finally found what she was looking for – coffee powder. She scooped several helpings into a pot and put it on to boil. As she was doing so, there was a light, almost tentative tap on the front door. Not hearing anyone else stir, Brittany went to the door and opened it a crack.

It was already very bright outside. She was slowly beginning to understand why Atrus and Irvan wore goggles when up here. Shielding her eyes, Brittany saw a young girl, about ten years old, wearing a button-up shirt, light cardigan and long skirt, all in brown earthy colours, with her long fair hair tied back in a ponytail and a large blue stone hanging from a chain around her neck. She looked up at Brittany.

"Hiya, Britt," she said. "Anyone still asleep?"

"Yeah, everyone else is," replied Brittany. "Come in."

Brittany opened the door fully and Yeesha came in. The two of them went into the kitchen, where the coffee pot was beginning to whine. Brittany took it off the boil and poured herself a cup.

"You want anything to eat?"

"Nah, Mum always makes me eat breakfast." Yeesha sat down. "Dad sent me over to make sure you got his letter."

"Yep, we did," replied Brittany, sipping her coffee. "Irvan gave it to us."

"Cool," said Yeesha. "So when are you coming over?"

* * *

About half an hour later, everyone else had awoken and was busy either drinking coffee, eating breakfast or both. Yeesha and Jane were talking non-stop about a vast array of things, Rachel was continuing her conversation with Maddy from the other night about relationships, and Jordan and Brittany were discussing Atrus' letter.

"Yeah, school's finished for two months now..."

"...no, I expect he wants us to..."

"...it is hard, but if you look enough..."

"...but why would he want..."

"...the key is not to..."

"...Dad is teaching me how to..."

"...he might want to consult..."

"...comes down to how much you're..."

"...must be more interesting than..."

"...most of them just want sex."

Unluckily for Rachel, this was exactly where the conversation froze so that the entire room heard her. She blushed slightly.

"So, uh... ready to go?"

* * *

As always, the sunroom on Tomahna glistened with the light of the new day. The wind whispered softly as the six of them linked in, and the chimes tinkled softly as the wind passed them. Together, they made their way up to the observatory.

Jordan, Rachel and Jane went first – they worked out that the elevator could not comfortably accomodate more than three at a time – quickly followed by Brittany, Maddy and Yeesha. It was beautifully lit, mainly because of the huge round window overlooking the rest of Tomahna.

"I'll go find Dad," said Yeesha, and disappeared with Jane back into the elevator. Jordan, Rachel, Maddy and Brittany stepped up to the large window and looked out over Tomahna.

The location that Atrus and Catherine had found for their new home ten years ago was amazingly perfect. It was situated in a fairly large valley in the deep desert, away from all traces of exploration by the people of the surface, built around a smallish freshwater lake. The buildings were all precisely the same – round, domed buildings, about half a dozen (not counting the one they were standing in), linked by walkways and the elevator.

Although the desert surrounding Tomahna was more or less featureless, excepting the volcano visible on the horizon, the area around the valley was teeming with natural beauty, most of which stemmed from the small amount of plant life that thrived around the lake, and also from the small birds that were often seen flying around. Really, Rachel thought, it would be a beautiful area even if it wasn't Tomahna, which was probably why Atrus and Catherine had chosen this area as their home. From this perspective, the valley always reminded Maddy just a little bit of Voltaic, the lesson age of energy that she, Jordan and Rachel had visited ten years ago.

As the four of them stood at the window, immersed in Tomahna's beauty, the elevator door opened behind them with a whirr and Atrus stepped out. The four visitors greeted their host with the usual handshakes and hugs before Atrus started off on one of his spiels.

"Well, my friends, you're probably wondering why I've asked you here... the truth is, I need your help."

"Something to do with your sons?" asked Brittany. Atrus nodded.

"Yes, that's right. As you know, they were trapped twenty years ago on two separate prison ages after they destroyed many of the ages in my library on Myst, shortly before I met the four of you. Yes... well, at that time, Catherine and I decided that it would be best to leave them imprisoned. We'd hoped that it might reform them, you see. Anyway... it's been twenty years now, and Catherine believes our sons should be released."

At this point, Atrus' audience stiffened visibly. All four of them remembered how they had diced with possible death twenty years ago by almost freeing Sirrus and Achenar. Atrus noticed this reaction, and pressed on quickly.

"You see, I'm not convinced. So I think it would be best to have an objective opinion. That's where you four come in. What I -"

"Wait, wait, wait," interrupted Jordan. "You want us to help you decide if Sirrus and Acheanr have reformed enough to be released?" Atrus nodded. Jordan glanced at the other three before continuing. "Well, naturally we'd be happy to help you, Atrus, but I wonder how you can see us as objective. After all, we were very nearly victims of their manipulation ourselves."

"That's true," replied Atrus, "but you did manage to see through them, something with Catherine and I failed miserably at. The four of you are the only people who really understand the situation Catherine and I are in, and because you don't have the subjectivity of them being family, you're the only ones we can trust to give us a genuine opinion on whether or not either Sirrus or Achenar do deserve to be freed."

There was silence for a minute, then Jordan spoke again. "All right... so what's the plan? We can't exactly go to the prison ages, can we?"

"Well, yes, we can," replied Atrus. "I wrote a secure linking chamber into each one that allows visitors to come and go without releasing Sirrus or Achenar. But we're not going to the ages yet. First, I want to show you the ages before we go there using my old crystal viewer." He gestured to the device behind him. "I've made a few changes to it recently to allow it to function in Tomahna. I've also added a sound component, so we can listen in on an age, but I haven't calibated the sound panel to be able to pick up either Spire or Haven yet. Would you mind giving me a hand with that, one of you?"

Jordan, Rachel and Maddy all looked at Brittany, who shrugged her agreement and stepped up to the panel on the wall that Atrus pointed at.

"All right..." muttered Atrus, examining a panel on the crystal viewer. "What I'm going to do is transmit a wave form being put out by Haven. It should appear in your right-hand monitor. Okay... here it comes."

A high-pitched hum filled the air suddenly, and Rachel grimaced. Atrus glanced up. "Oh, sorry about that... I couldn't work out how to stop it doing that. But do you see the wave, Brittany?"

"Yes," replied Brittany.

"Good. Now, we have to manipulate the blue line until it matches that yellow wave exactly. The blue line is the result of two superimposed..."

Atrus carried on for quite a while in the way that the four of them knew him so well for. Eventually, he started to instruct Brittany on use of the panel. Brittany knew a little about wave forms, and proved fairly adept at manipulating the signals. It didn't take her long to get a lock on Haven's signal. Spire's signal took her a bit longer, as it was more complex than Haven's, but eventually she stepped back from the panel with a triumphant smile on her face. Atrus straightened up and turned back to the four of them.

"Excellent. Well done, my friend. We should be able to hear both prison ages now. So, let's begin, shall we?"

Before Jordan could respond, a sudden small explosion rocked the observatory. The five of them stumbled, trying to keep their footing. Smoke was rising from the panel that Atrus had been using a minute ago. Atrus frowned.

"What in the name of -"

He was interrupted by another explosion, this time coming from a largish round device suspended just above the sound panel. This triggered several more explosions, culminating finally in a much larger one. The five of them ducked the flying sparks and threw their hands over their heads.

A minute later, when the chaos had subsided, they straightened up. The large ball that had exploded was still sparking slightly, and the viewer panel was still smoking heavily, but the explosions had stopped. Atrus went cautiously over to the viewer and examined it, muttering to himself, before turning back again to Jordan, Rachel, Maddy and Brittany.

"Okay... a slight change in plans, my friends. It looks like the explosion shut down the main power supply and damaged the viewer's external image modulator. Fortunately, the viewer itself looks undamaged, so I'm going to go and get my spare image modulator from Rime. So while I'm gone, why don't the four of you get the power restored? Go to the waterwheel control room and close both emergency release gates. Once you've done that, come back here and use the viewer to contact me. If you look in my journal there you'll find the crystal combination to view Rime." He gestured to a drawer in his desk. "The backup power will keep the elevator running but only between here and the station below; you won't be able to cross the lake." He pulled a book off his shelf and flicked it open to the last page. "Oh, and you'll need to turn on the roof antenna before the viewer will work. And keep an eye on Yeesha for me, would you?"

"Of course," replied Rachel, remembering how many times Atrus and Catherine had watched Jane for her and Jordan when they had to go out of town.

"Thanks... I'll be back soon."

* * *

He stands, smiling. At last. At long last. He's finally got it.

He gathers his wits about him. More... he needs some more. In case they're needed. After all, he can't go unarmed. He fetches his bag and gathers four or five. There... that should be plenty.

He rests for a minute, then goes to the chamber. The supposedly impenetrable chamber. He stands just feet away from his freedom. He can taste it. And soon it will be his.

It's time. Bag ready. Fist ready. Nerves steady.

He raises his fist. He is on edge. What if it doesn't work properly? What if the book gets destroyed? What if -

No! Nothing can go wrong. He's planned this to perfection.

He counts himself down. Sehn... bree... fah... roon!

He opens his fist and hurls the contents into the chamber, then runs. A perfect piercing note fills the air, followed by a shattering rumble. He straightens up and returns to the chamber. The impenetrable chamber... He grins. Oh yes. I finally did it.

He steps over the debris and through the broken bars. He opens the small capsule in front of him.

Yes... there it is. He opens the book.

Twenty years, he's waited for this. He touches the book and steps forward into darkness.

* * *

"Oh come on. Surely we can get this."

Jordan, Rachel, Maddy and Brittany stood in front of the power supply box in Catherine's study. After Yeesha had informed them that something had apparently gone wrong with the backup power, they had determined that this was why they couldn't close the release gates on the waterwheel as Atrus had instructed. It was clear that this box could be used to manually redirect the backup power to several vital pieces of equipment around Tomahna, including the elevator and the two waterwheel gates. It was clear that the gates needed to be powered to enable the four of them to close them and restore the power across Tomahna, but actually doing so was proving to be quite a struggle. Brittany stepped back, conceding defeat. All four of them had now tried, and all four of them had failed.

"Why can't we solve this?" sighed Maddy. "We're supposed to be intelligent."

At this point, Jane entered the room and joined the group.

"I thought you were with Yeesha?" asked Jordan.

"Yeah," sighed Jane, "but she had to go practise her music." The five of them heard a high, musical piping sound, a little like a flute, coming from one of the greenhouses. Jane smiled cheerfully. "So I thought I'd let her get on with it and come see what you were doing." She paused. "What are you doing?"

"Trying to power the waterwheel release gates so that we can restore the main power supply," replied Maddy. "Except we can't seem to redirect the power."

Jane stepped forward and peered at the box. "Cool. Let me try."

"Oh, I don't think that -"

Rachel was cut off by Maddy. "Let her try, Rach. No harm in teaching her to think logically about this stuff.

"I suppose not," sighed Rachel. "It's just that we sort of need to get this power back on soon, and -"

"Hey, look, I made the lights blink," chirped Jane offhandedly.

"Okay, she totally solved it," reported Brittany after looking at the panel. "I think she might be a genius."

Jane grinned cheekily. "Told ya, Mum. Even Britt agrees."

* * *

Maddy pressed the button on the waterwheel controls. There was a rattling clank, and the covers for the two release gates dropped down, pulling the main covers up. Water poured down onto the wheel, making it turn, slowly at first, but then faster and faster. There was a click, and a small device next to the wheel started crackling with electricity. The five of them smiled triumphantly.

"We did it," said Maddy as they walked away from the wheel. Jane gave her a look. "I said 'we'."

"Suit yourself," sighed Jane. "And stop bouncing up and down, you're making the bridge shake."

"I'm not bouncing up and down," replied Maddy, puzzled. All five of them stopped. Jane was right; the bridge was shaking. It had been fairly slight at first, but now it was beginning to pick up. It wasn't just the bridge, either – the ground was shaking as well. The five of them grabbed hold of the railings and each other, too frightened to try and get off the bridge.

The supports holding the bridge into the rock began to slip, and the bridge dipped violently.

"What the hell is -"

There was a sudden flash and glow of green light from the rock under Atrus and Catherine's bedroom, then an explosion rocked the five terrified bystanders as the bridge finally gave way.

* * *

_Unfortunately, I was not able to work out how to include the Tomahna gondola in this story - it just seemed out of place and a little unnecessary, given the fact that they have Eder B'lontahv for such transport._


	3. Chaser

_Edit: I've updated this chapter very slightly to correct a continuity error that I noticed which was bugging me._

* * *

**2 – Chaser**

Maddy slowly slipped back into consciousness. Her mind began to tick over and make up for lost time. Her internal dialogue began piping up again.

Ah. My head hurts. Ouch.

I think I might have been drinking. I feel very hung over.

I don't remember any drinks. But then again, do I ever?

Wait, wait, wait. We were on Tomahna, and we'd fixed the power, and something blew up the bridge.

Ow, my head.

So where am I now?

Open your eyes and get up.

Go on, do it. I want to see where I am.

Come on. Eye open, sit up.

Ow, my head.

Open your eyes, you idiot!

Maddy opened her eyes. Her vision was blurred slightly, but she could see the night sky. That was about all. She finally managed to sit up.

Her glasses had fallen off her face. Where were they? Ah, there they were, in the water. Astonishingly not broken. She picked them up and slipped them on.

She was sitting in a shallow part of the Tomahna lake, amidst the rubble that constituted the remains of the bridge. A quick glance around showed her that, astonishingly, nothing else appeared to be damaged. Scattered around her were planks of wood, bits of stone, metal, and four other bodies. She crawled over to Jordan, her head still swimming, and shook him.

"Jordan. Jordan!"

Jordan groaned and opened his eyes. "Oh... Maddy. Where on earth are we?"

"Tomahna," replied Maddy, "sitting in the lake."

Jordan sat up with another groan and rubbed a hand over his eyes. "Why are we – oh, right. The bridge."

The two of them roused Rachel, Brittany and Jane, before the five of them clambered out of the lake using the most intact part of the bridge as a ladder.

"Is everyone okay?"

"Just a bit of a bruise," replied Jordan, "I'll be fine."

"I think I landed on my keys," muttered Rachel.

"I broke a nail," said Jane, sounding thoroughly annoyed.

"Britt?" asked Maddy, who had posed the question in the first place.

Brittany was sitting on the ground, grimacing. "I think I sprained my ankle. It hurts like hell."

Jordan, who knew a little about this sort of thing (not nearly as much as Brittany herself did, but since she was in pain her medical reasoning was rather clouded), bent down and gently examined Brittany's ankle.

"Apologies in advance, Britt... does it hurt if I do this?"

Brittany swore very loudly. Rachel covered Jane's ears. Jordan straightened up. Brittany, slightly embarrassed, cleared her throat.

"Uh... yes, Jordan. It does."

"So I gathered. Well, the good news is that your ankle is not sprained."

"Really?" Brittany grimaced even as she said this. "Then why does it hurt, pray tell?"

"That's the bad news," replied Jordan. "It's not sprained, it's broken. I think we'd better get you to hospital."

"Bugger that," replied Brittany, whose normally polite speech had been loosened slightly by the pain. "What am I supposed to tell them? The bridge blew up whilst visiting a friend? No way, Jordan. I've got a much better idea."

* * *

Atrus packed the last of the necessary materials into the box he'd brought with him. Finally... what had ever possessed him to bolt the thing down in this weather? The bolts had frozen solid and he'd spent all day getting them undone. Right... time to get going.

There was a terrific crash from outside. Atrus jumped about a foot in the air and nearly dropped the box containing the image modulator (which would have been disastrous). He set the box down, chiding himself for his skittishness, and opened the door.

Even without going to the elevator, he could tell what was happening. The air was positively crackling with electricity. Atrus' hair was standing on end. When Atrus approached the elevator, the light on the door was blinking red.

Great, thought Atrus. It's another electromagnetic storm, and it feels like a big one. The electromagnetic interference is stopping the electromagnets in the elevator from working properly, which means I can't get to the linking book. Looks like I'm here for the long haul. I'd better just sit tight and wait for the others to call on the viewer.

* * *

He sits, quietly biding his time. Just waiting. She'll be here soon. With Tomahna empty, this is absolutely her next port of call. And when she shows... he'll get her. That's the hard part taken care of. All he needs then is a few globes and a little bit of time. He's waited twenty years for this moment, and that will only make it taste sweeter.

He snaps to attention. Hairs standing on end. Someone's coming. Crouch. Wait... there's the link. Look out slowly... who is it?

Yes... he knew it. Okay... wait... got to time this perfectly. If she's too close to the book, she'll be back to Tomahna in a flash... if she's too far away, she'll be off to those meddling Protectors before you can say "transfer".

Now!

* * *

"Okay... you should be fine, but don't put too much pressure on it for the next few days at least."

Brittany tested herself gently on her good foot and crutch. She was wobbly, but at least she could walk.

"It's not too bad a break," continued Dahk, "so you should be fine in two weeks or so."

"Thank you so much, Dahk," replied Brittany. "I don't know what I would have done without you."

Dahk smiled, looking a little puzzled. "Surely you have Healers on the surface?"

"Well, yes," said Brittany, "but our Healers – doctors, we call them – are not nearly as good as you D'ni Healers."

"Well, it's a pleasure," replied Dahk. "Any friend of Atrus is a friend of all D'ni."

The five of them left the Healers' Guild Hall slowly, to accommodate Brittany's foot, and made their way over to the common library.

"You see, Jordan?" said Brittany, grinning. "I told you D'ni doctors – Healers, rather – are much better than our doctors."

"And you were right, as always," replied Jordan. "What's the time?"

"Surface time is..." Brittany struggled to look at her watch. "About five o'clock in the morning."

"Okay. Well, you can't go home. Clearly we're all going to have to stay together... just like old times."

Brittany was about to argue, but immediately saw the sense in what Jordan was saying. "Okay, fair enough. But there's no point going to bed now. Let's go back to Tomahna and make some breakfast. Yeesha's an early riser, she'll be hungry soon, and I don't think Atrus is home yet. Because he would have come looking for us," she answered the unspoken question.

The five of them linked to Tomahna and collectively bunny-hopped their way over to the elevator to go over to the kitchen. Brittany sat down on the couch with a groan and put her crutch to the side. Rachel and Maddy darted into the kitchen to find something to eat. Jane drifted out onto the balcony and looked down at Yeesha's room.

"Hey, Yeesha's light is on," she chirped. She yanked at the lever to move the bridge and dashed down towards her friend's room before Jordan could stop her. A few seconds later, however, she came back up, looking a little confused.

"Yeesha isn't down there."

Jordan frowned. "That's strange. Maybe she's already up." Even as he said it, however, he doubted himself. They hadn't seen her on their way through Tomahna – and come to think of it, why hadn't she come looking for them and discovered them in the lake? Jordan's gut was beginning to get worried. "Let's go for a walk, Jane."

Jordan and Jane went back over to the elevator to have a look around. Rachel and Maddy emerged from the kitchen.

"I don't like this," said Rachel. "Yeesha wouldn't wander far if she woke up and nobody was here."

"I'm sure there's a reason," replied Brittany, repositioning her foot. "Maybe she wanted to be up early to check on one of her experiments."

"You're probably right," said Maddy. "I'm sure it's all fine."

"Mum! Mad! Britt!"

"Or maybe not." Maddy and Rachel dashed off in the direction of Jane's shout. Brittany looked as they vanished.

"Yeah, okay, thanks," she muttered, grabbing her crutch, heaving herself up off the couch and hobbling off after them.

* * *

Rachel and Maddy found Jane and Jordan in Atrus and Catherine's bedroom.

"What's going on?"

Jane, who had been kneeling on the floor in front of the fireplace, held up her hand. She was holding a largish, heavy chain in her hand, suspended from which was a large blue stone. Rachel and Maddy looked at it curiously.

"What is -"

Brittany hobbled into the room after them.

"Thanks for the help, guys." She spotted the chain in Jane's hand. "Hey, isn't that Yeesha's necklace?"

"Yeah," replied Jane. "She treasures this thing. And it was just lying on the ground there in the fireplace." She pointed at the fireplace. The five of them bent down towards the fireplace.

A single clear chiming note pierced the air softly. Jane looked at the necklace in her hand. The blue stone was glowing. Cautiously, she touched it.

_Running. She looks back over her shoulder. He's behind her. She stumbles. Makes it to the fireplace. He's hot on her heels. She grabs for the button. Once. Twice. He's reaching in. Grasping, finding only her necklace. The gears mesh and the door closes. He jerks his hand back. Her necklace falls to the ground._

Jane gasped and dropped the necklace. She blinked several times.

"What happened?"

"I – I'm not sure," stuttered Jane. "I saw... something. When I touched the necklace."

"Isn't that thing supposed to be able to pick up memories?" asked Brittany. "What did you see?"

"I – I saw Yeesha being chased into the fireplace. She looked really scared."

"Who was chasing her?"

"I don't know... I didn't see."

Rachel frowned. "I don't like this at all. I think something happened to Yeesha while we were unconscious in the lake."

"So what do we do?"

"I think we have to go upstairs and contact Atrus. Hopefully he can help us."

* * *

Right. The hard part is done. No time to waste. It's going to take really quite a while for him to get the chair ready to go again, seeing as he had turned everything off before leaving here twenty years ago. So... at least a day or two. Shame he couldn't have got it all set up and then nabbed Yeesha. That was originally his intention. But when he had had to use that bomb to get out of the linking chamber, then ran into her in the bedroom like that... he had no choice.

* * *

Brittany sat with Atrus' journal in front of her, fiddling with the crystal viewer. The others had gone to search Tomahna for anything that might be able to help them locate Yeesha. Brittany decided that she would try and contact Atrus using the viewer, since she was not likely to be much of a help with a broken ankle.

Atrus' drawings of the crystal shapes were fortunately fairly clear – some of the crystals were a bit similar in shape, and Brittany had learnt from past experience that some drawings could be easily confusing. With Atrus' clear drawings, however, Brittany was quickly able to key the appropriate combination into the viewer. When she pressed the centre button to establish contact, the dull whine of the static changed pitch several times before Atrus' face swam into view on the screen. Something was clearly wrong, however, as the image and sound were both choked with static, and Brittany had to lean close to hear what Atrus said.

"...ah, my friends, are you there?" Atrus squinted. It was clear that his connection was as bad as Brittany's was. "I really hope you're getting this, because I'm barely receiving you. Listen, there's a terrible electromagnetic storm here on Rime, and I can't get home until it's over. But I know what you can do in the meantime – go to my desk in my bedroom. Below the top drawer you'll see a symbol. Press on it to open two compartments; the commentaries I wrote on Haven and Spire are inside. Okay?"

"Atrus, I -"

"Oh, and tell Yeesha not to forget her homework. She -"

The static surged suddenly and the image dissolved into swirling grey particles before settling down into the calm static of the idle image. The dull whine of the static returned, as Brittany cursed in frustration. She pressed the button again, but the connection refused to reopen, instead seeing the screen splutter with static like an engine refusing to start. After trying a few more times, Brittany sighed in defeat and sat back.

The elevator opened behind her and Maddy stepped out. Brittany turned on her chair to greet her.

"Any luck?"

"No," sighed Maddy, "I've drawn a blank. The others are still looking, but I'm not confident. What about you?"

"Well," replied Brittany, "I managed to make contact with Atrus, but there's a big storm going on there and it was interfering with the connection. He can't get back here until the storm dies down."

"What did he say when you told him what happened?"

"I didn't have a chance to tell him. He had only just finished talking when the connection dropped out, and I haven't been able to reopen it."

"Well..." Maddy sighed. "We have to try and work out what's happened."

"You're right," replied Brittany. "And I think I know where to start."


	4. Chamber

**3 – Chamber**

"All right, Britt... what's your thoughts?"

Jordan, Rachel, Maddy, Brittany and Jane were all seated at the table outside the Tomahna kitchen. Their search of Atrus and Catherine's home had turned up nothing, and they were beginning to get very worried that something even worse would happen to Yeesha whilst they were trying to work out what to do.

"I think I may have worked out who it is that's behind this," replied Brittany. "I'm not certain. But I have a fairly good idea."

"Really?" Rachel sat forward. "Who?"

"Look at it this way," said Brittany in her trademark cryptic fashion. "Who would want to kidnap Yeesha? Cause I think we have to assume that's what happened."

This puzzled all four listeners. Brittany continued after waiting a second. "She's ten years old. She gets along well with everyone. That means that there's nobody who has a grudge directly against her. Instead, that leaves two possibilities. Either, someone wants something she has. That seems unlikely. Or -"

"Someone's trying to use her to get to Atrus," finished Jordan heavily.

"Exactly," replied Brittany.

"That doesn't really narrow it down, though," said Maddy. "There's all manner of people who might want revenge on Atrus."

"That's true," said Brittany, "but it becomes more obvious who it must be when you think about it like this. Recently, Atrus has been teaching Yeesha the Art. This would doubtless have made some people jealous. Some people that Atrus had refused to teach the Art to."

"Oh, no way." Rachel cottoned on before either Jordan or Maddy did. "Not – not her brothers?"

"Who else?"

Jordan, Rachel and Maddy paused to consider this. Brittany had a point. It was not inconceivable at all that Sirrus or Achenar would have been jealous about Atrus agreeing to teach Yeesha the Art. And whilst Atrus and Catherine had hoped that twenty years alone on their respective prison ages would have reformed their sons, it was just as likely that their term of imprisonment would have made them bitter and bent on revenge.

"All right..." said Maddy eventually. "Let's say for argument's sake that one or both of Yeesha's brothers escaped their confinement and decided to kidnap her. That means that our next port of call has to be the prison ages."

"Yes," replied Brittany. "If they're still there, we know that it can't have been them. But if either of them has broken out, then it's more than likely that it was one of them. Then all we have to do is work out where she is."

"Okay," said Jordan, "in that case, here's the plan. We have to find where Atrus keeps the books linking to Spire and Haven. Once we find them, one of us goes to each age quickly to see if either brother is still there. Then, if they both are, we regroup and think again. If one of them has escaped, then Rach, Mop and I will go to that age to see if we can work out what happened."

"I'm not sitting around doing nothing!" exclaimed Brittany and Jane in unison. They shared a grin.

"You won't be doing nothing," replied Jordan tersely, "you'll be here in case something happens. Atrus or Catherine might come home, or whoever kidnapped Yeesha might come back here to confront Atrus."

"But -"

"Britt," intervened Maddy, "you can barely walk. If we're going to search the prison ages, we need to be quick about it, because we don't know how much time we have."

"And as for you, Jane," continued Jordan, "you're far too young to -"

"I am not," countered Jane immediately. "I'm ten years old -"

"Exactly -"

"- and I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself. Anyway, I'd be with you three. And," Jane saw the doubt still on Jordan's face and played her final trump card, "I know Yeesha far better than any of you. I know how she thinks. So I'd be helpful to working out what she did after the bridge blew up."

"She makes a good case, Jordan," said Brittany, stepping up to bat for Jane. Brittany and Jane had had a very close bond for a long time now, probably stemming from the two weeks when Jordan, Rachel and Maddy were on J'nanin. Jane had come to regard Brittany as a sort of surrogate aunt – Rachel had no siblings and Jordan's brother and sister both lived in Ireland – and Brittany had credited Jane as the main reason she had started dating again, because Jane's constant cheerfulness and pearls of childlike wisdom gave her "hope for the world", in Brittany's own words.

"I agree," replied Rachel.

With both his wife and his friend now united against him, Jordan silently appealed to Maddy, who shrugged.

"I'm on their side," she said, somewhat apologetically.

"Oh, fine then. I'm surprised you agreed, Britt. I thought you'd want to have some company."

"Don't worry about that, Jordan," replied Brittany deviously. "I'll be fine."

* * *

Getting there, he thinks. This would be a lot faster if he had some proper tools. But he had foolishly left all his tools behind when he broke out. So he has to improvise. Never mind... he's getting there, and with a bit of luck he'll be ready to go before someone comes looking for the girl.

He walks around to the chair and begins to carefully adjust a few things on the control panel. Twenty years on, he can hardly expect everything to work smoothly. Mind you, it's not easy to concentrate with your sister struggling and shouting at you from the chair. Block her out. She'll shut up for good once he gets this chair working.

Hard to block her out. Her voice drills into his skull. He grits his teeth.

"Shut up!" She does. "Thank you. Perhaps I should explain. Maybe then you'll keep quiet."

"Fine," she says, still struggling. "Explain."

"Well, it's perfectly simple. I want to learn the Art. Father refused to teach me. He has agreed to teach you. Therefore, I am jealous of you and intend to use you to achieve my goal."

"Why would I keep quiet?"

"Because if you don't," he says with forced calm, "I will make you shut up by putting your consciousness in a small blue globe." That shuts her up. "There we go." Back to work. He compliments himself silently on his bluff – he hasn't got any empty globes at the moment. He'll need to go harvest some before he does the transfer.

* * *

Jordan, Rachel, Maddy, Brittany and Jane stood in Atrus and Catherine's bedroom and surveyed the room. They were convinced that the way to get to the books must be in here somewhere.

"Right..." muttered Rachel. "So how does it work? A bookshelf combination or something?"

"I don't know," replied Maddy. "Although – hang on. Jane?"

Jane had been idly staring off into the distance until she heard her name. She jolted back to the present. "Hmm?"

"When that necklace showed you that memory of Yeesha being chased. Where did she run to?"

"Into the fireplace," replied Jane, puzzled.

"Thank you. You may now resume not listening to us." Maddy turned back to the others. "The fireplace must be the way in."

"I think you must be right, Mad," said Brittany, examining it carefully. After all, on Myst they had a rotating fireplace, didn't they?"

"That's true," said Rachel, "and there is a painting of Myst hanging above the fireplace."

Maddy, who was the smallest of the four of them, crawled into the fireplace. She called back what she saw.

"Yeah, okay... there's a sort of door here... and a button to close it, I guess." The door closed. "Yep, that's what it does." She paused. "Okay, there's a sort of grid on the inside wall behind the door."

"Sort of like the one on Myst," called back Jordan.

"Yeah, exactly. I guess we have to put some sort of code in." The door slid open again and Maddy emerged. "But what?"

There was silence for a moment. Jane, twirling her hair around her finger, was seated at Atrus' desk. She idly picked up a small scrap of paper.

"Does this help?" she said suddenly, waving it in the air. Jordan plucked it from her hand and examined it quickly.

"Maybe. It looks like if we turn the lamps on, that acts like a sort of switch for the fireplace lock. So..." He turned on the lamp on Atrus' desk and the one on the bedside table. "Go back in, Mop..."

Maddy went back into the fireplace and closed the door again. "Okay, yeah... I can see a whole bunch of little red dots projected onto some of the grid squares. I suppose we just have to press those squares." There was a pause. "Ah, hang on. When you touch a square, the squares around it light up." She opened the door and crawled back out. "What is it with Atrus and puzzles that are too clever for me?"

"Let me try," said Rachel, and crawled into the fireplace. They heard her tapping away at the grid. After a minute, she called back. "Ah, I got it! So now -"

Her voice cut off and became a shriek of not quite terror but more shock, combined with the clattering of gears and a sudden thud. After a second, they heard the clattering again, and the fireplace door opened. Rachel crawled out, looking slightly shaken.

"Okay, so the fireplace is like an elevator," she said, "and it goes down to a sort of cave near the lake. I didn't see what was there before I came back up, but I'm guessing that the books must be down there."

The five of them managed to squeeze into the fireplace, which frustratingly was larger than the elevator, and Rachel elbowed the button over the door. As the door panel slid down into place, Rachel noticed that the code she had inputted was still on the grid.

"Oh, it remembers the code!" she warned suddenly. "So we're about to -"

* * *

Exactly five seconds later, they picked themselves up off the floor of the fireplace and the ground outside (two of them had fallen out when the lift came to a stop) and brushed themselves off.

"Why," grumbled Maddy, "is it necessary for the lift to be that fast?"

"It's Atrus," replied Rachel. "Remember what he said to us once?"

"'If it's worth doing, it's worth doing properly,'" related Brittany, struggling to get to her feet. Jordan helped her up.

Once they had picked themselves up and assured themselves that there were no new injuries, they walked slowly out into the cave, half expecting to be ambushed by Sirrus or Achenar at any moment. Rounding the corner, they came face to face with something very strange.

Nestled into the cave, with a good view of the lake beyond, was a large golden ball. It looked like it was designed to rotate – yet more security, they guessed – and inside, mounted on stands attached to the railings, were two linking books.

"Okay, we found them," said Jordan. He pulled a large lever set into the ground near them. With a thud, the ball began to rotate very slowly on its horizontal axis until it had made a half turn. They noted as it came to a stop that the books had closed and slid to the side. The now-front panel of the ball opened with a slow creak, allowing them access to the books.

"There's only room for one or two in there," commented Maddy, looking at the small area of floor that was attached to the railing such that it wouldn't rotate when the ball did.

"So what's the plan, Jordan?" asked Rachel.

"Okay, I think one of us goes to Spire and another to Haven," said Jordan, "just to see if the brothers are still there. If either of them has escaped, we conduct a search of the age, being as thorough and at the same time quick as we possibly can."

"Right. So who goes in first? You, of course, Jordan, cause it was your idea."

"Naturally," replied Jordan, smiling slightly. "Any volunteers for a second?"

"Yeah, alright," replied Maddy after nobody else did. "We're just going for a quick look to see if they've escaped, right?"

"Right." Jordan and Maddy stepped into the ball. Rachel pulled the lever again, and the ball swivelled slowly around until the books sat open in front of them. Maddy touched the panel linking to Spire and vanished with a rush of air. Jordan followed suit quickly and linked to Haven. There was silence in the cave as Rachel, Brittany and Jane stood and waited.

"So how's your foot?"

"Getting better. It doesn't hurt nearly as much now. I should be right fairly soon."

"Good. And you're getting the hang of the crutch now, I see."

"Yeah, it's a case of practice makes perfect, I suppose."

The conversation lulled again. Fortunately for both Rachel and Brittany, Maddy chose this point to link back in. Rachel rotated the ball again to let her out, and she climbed down the stairs and joined them.

"Sirrus is gone," she announced bluntly with no attempt at a prelude. "The chamber there is more or less in ruins. How he did it, I have no idea."

Jordan linked into the chamber behind them and joined them quickly.

"Well, Achenar is not on Haven. He somehow managed to ruin the chamber and get to the book. So, do we think it was him?"

"Not entirely," replied Brittany. "Maddy was just telling us that exactly the same thing happened on Spire."

Jordan paused. "Terrific. So they've both escaped." He paused, thinking hard. "Well, we're going to have to search both ages. Which one are we going to do first?"

"Hang on," intervened Brittany. "You've been saying all along how we need to be fast. You're right, obviously. So why not search both ages at once? Split into two pairs and take one each, then regroup here afterwards."

Jordan paused in his stride. "Yeah, that makes sense. Good idea, Britt.

"All right," said Maddy, taking charge, "Jordan, you and Jane search Haven. Rachel and I will take Spire."

"Hang on," interrupted Jordan. "Why not -"

"Because," Maddy counter-interrupted, "with no offence to Jane, I'd rather not be paired with her, since I have no idea how to deal with children. Plus, if you and Rachel were together, I'd spend the entire search thinking about what you were doing alone on a largish age."

Jane snickered slightly. "No offence taken, Mad."

Jordan cleared his throat, somewhat embarrassed. "Well, we wouldn't – oh, never mind. All right, Jane and I will search Haven, and you two search Spire. Britt – we'll all be back as soon as we can. If anything happens while we're gone... well, get a knife from the kitchen and sit tight, I guess."

"I was planning," replied Brittany haughtily, "in the event that something dangerous does happen, to go to Releeshahn and get someone to help me."

"That's what she was planning to do anyway," said Maddy. Jordan, Rachel and Jane all laughed as Brittany blushed.

"Go on, get out of here," she said defensively, herding Maddy and Rachel into the ball as best she could. After a quick rotation, they linked to Spire, and a minute later Jordan and Jane were sent on their way to Haven. Brittany turned away from the golden ball and made her way back to the lift, grinning widely.


	5. Crystal

**4 – Crystal**

Rachel and Maddy stood in front of the sculpture, somewhat in awe of it. It had been carved from the beautiful quartz crystal that was abundant throughout the small part of Spire they had seen so far, and it depicted the scene that they had seen not so long ago in the painting above the fireplace in Atrus and Catherine's bedroom.

"Why would Sirrus put so much effort into building this?" said Rachel. "It can't have been easy to construct... look at the detail." She ran a hand over the crystalline figures. They were cold and smooth to touch. The tableau was positioned perfectly, and it was a perfect recreation of the painting in Atrus and Catherine's bedroom.

"He wouldn't have put this much effort into something for no reason," mused Maddy, "even if he was stranded here with nothing to do."

"Exactly," replied Rachel, "and I'm betting the reason wasn't for its sentimental value."

They stood and looked at the vignette for a little longer, then moved on in silence.

* * *

Jordan stood outside Haven's destroyed linking chamber and surveyed the landscape. This area of Haven was a fairly barren coastline, broken by the massive wrecked ship on the sharp rocks. Jordan had already noted, though, that the vast majority of the island was covered in a dense jungle. He was looking for any signs of human life, although he did not expect to see any. There was life here – birds soared, he could see crabs scuttling along the beach, and other creatures in the distance. But no human life. Unsurprising, really – why would Achenar have waited around? Surely twenty years was more than enough for him.

He heard Jane behind him, and turned around. She was holding a small purse.

"Where'd you get that?"

"It was in that tray thing," replied Jane, pointing at the swivelling compartment which was presumably for passing things through the bars of the cell between visitor and prisoner. "But that doesn't matter... here, look." She gave the purse to Jordan, who turned it over in his hand.

"Seems normal to me. What am I looking at?"

"This..." Jane grabbed her father's hand and dragged it onto Yeesha's necklace, which Jane had hung around her own neck.

"Wha-"

_She stumbles. Falls briefly to her knees. Cries out – in pain? Fear? Gets up. Runs off, looking back over her shoulder._

Jordan blinked several times and shook his head slightly. He frowned.

"That was – a memory? Triggered by the purse?"

"I guess so," said Jane. "I think that means that Yeesha must have come here after she hid in the fireplace."

Jordan thought about this for a second. "Hmm. Well... I'll keep that in mind. Come on, let's go."

They walked down a short, gravelly track, which dead-ended at a small cliff face. On the ground in front of them were several crabs, which were crowded in what appeared to be puzzled awe around something shining on the ground. Jordan gave them eah a poke with his foot, and they scuttled away, leaving Jordan to pick up the shining object.

The object was made of a smooth, translucent white crystal. It appeared to be a shard of something larger, as it was broken and jagged on one edge. The non-broken part was carved into a small, crude face.

"What is that?"

"Some sort of crystal," replied Jordan.

"There was some shiny stuff on the ground in the chmber," said Jane absently, taking the crystal and turning it over in her hand. It was cold to the touch, despite Haven's warm ambient temperature. "Maybe this is -"

She stopped as the necklace chimed its clear, piercing note again. Still somewhat wary of the necklace's power, Jane touched it.

_Two men, apart for twenty years. One, thin and devious, uses his mind as chief weapon. The other, well-built and vicious, uses his strength. They circle each other. Eyes meet. False lunges. Then a real strike. The strong one pins the thin one down. The thin one pushes back. Exertion. Groaning. Sweat._

Jane jerked her hand away. She was still not used to seeing memories like that.

"What did you see this time?" asked Jordan quietly.

"Two men," murmured Jane. "Fighting."

"Who were they?"

"Dunno. Never seen them before. One was tall and thin, and the other was pretty bulky and wild-looking."

"Can I see?" Jordan took the crystal from her and touched the necklace. He murmured under his breath in surprise.

"Sirrus and Achenar..."

Jane was surprised as well. "So does that mean... Sirrus came here?"

"Yeah, I guess so."

Silence fell between them as they walked back to the linking chamber and up a roughly carved flight of stairs to a narrow flat area. To the right, they saw some large stacks of boxes and crates, whilst to the left was a cliff with a crude rope ladder hanging down it, leading to a wider beach and the wrecked ship.

"She'll be all right."

Jane looked up at her father. She sighed. "Yeah... I hope so."

* * *

Rachel took a few steps back and surveyed the small area where she and Maddy stood. It was a small cave, enclosed by Spire's ubiquitous rock on all sides but one, which opened out onto the sea of clouds beyond. There was nothing special about the rock – it was exactly like all the other rock they'd seen. Out the open side of the cave, another rock spire could be seen jutting out of the clouds. On the whole, thought Rachel, this area would be incredibly dull if it wasn't so interesting. Strewn throughout the cave were various other artefacts which were obviously not natural. Several lengths of greenish wire ran along the floor, which itself was metal grates that were raised slightly from the ground. Circuit boards and other electronic equipment were positioned in various places around the cave. Most impressively of all, however, seven crystals, clamped by massive metal holders and connected by the same green wire, were suspended out over the clouds between the cave and the second spire. Judging by how far away they were, each of the metal structures was at least as big as a human, and a ball of crackling electricity glimmered above each one.

"Sirrus – he must have built all this," said Rachel, somewhat awe-struck. "From scratch. It's – awe-inspiring."

"He did have twenty years," replied Maddy.

"Most people couldn't build something like this from scratch in twenty lifetimes," said Rachel. "I know I couldn't; I don't know a thing about this sort of stuff."

"That's true. And then there's the obvious lack of tools. He must have found some sort of metal ore to make all this grating." Maddy kneeled down and tapped the grating that covered the floor. It rang at her touch.

"If you say so," replied Rachel. She looked around the chamber. "There's a ladder there... we should probably move on, as interesting as I know this is for you."

Upstairs, the two of them came across what appeared to be a combined garden and laboratory. Rows and rows of unfamiliar but not particularly interesting plants filled part of the area, and the other part was taken up by a multitude of benches, with papers, crystals and plants scattered over them in what seemed like a form of organised chaos. Maddy gravitated immedaitely to Sirrus' workbenches, where she found the most fantastic array of... well, everything. Of particular interest to her, however, was a small leather-bound book lying innocently on the bench. She picked it up and flicked it open.

"Hey, Rach, look at this," she called over her shoulder. Rachel, who had been examining the garden, looked over Maddy's shoulder at the book.

"Sirrus' journal?"

"Yeah." Maddy skimmed the pages of the book quickly. "It looks like he wrote in the..." she glanced at the dates, "first year or so. He goes on about the crystals and how he harnessed them to store electricity. And he talks about how he was trying to use one of the floating rocks to construct a ship to take him over to that other spire." She paused again and flicked to the last entry. "It looks like he made a mistake in his calculations and lost his first ship. He says it set him back by years. I wonder if he ever succeeded?"

"I expect we'll find out," replied Rachel.

* * *

The interior of the wrecked ship contained a lot more than either Jordan or Jane had been expecting. Upstairs (so to speak – there weren't any stairs, only ladders and ropes) they found a room which Achenar had made into his makeshift bedroom. They found his journal on the bed, which described Achenar's vendetta against some sort of sea monster which had attempted to kill him. Both Jordan and Jane recalled seeing the skeleton of a massive creature lying on the beach. It certainly matched the drawing in the book – perhaps Achenar had succeeded in killing the creature after all. The journal ended after the creature's attack on Achenar, after which he swore vengeance on the creature using his typical colourful turn of phrase.

"'As death is my witness, I will decorate my kingdom with your bones.'" Jordan closed the book. "The man is nuts."

"I dunno, Dad," said Jane. "He goes on and on about the intelligence of this thing. If it's that smart, and he managed to kill it, he must have outsmarted it."

"That's true," replied Jordan after a brief hesitation. "How would he kill something of that size? It must have been, what, three times his size?"

"More," said Jane, who was better at judging scale than her father. "The skull on the beach was bigger than me. Five times his size, I think, at least."

"Astonishing," murmured Jordan under his breath. "But you're right. Something of that size and intellect, he couldn't have just taken it on. He would have had to plan his attack."

Downstairs, the two of them found a sort of lab set up. There was a variety of hunting tools, including crude bear traps and a variety of spears. On the desk, however, was a small bellows. Jordan, in a moment of rash action, poked the bellows. A jet of greenish gas shot out the end and enveloped both him and Jane. Instantly, Jordan's head began to swim and he felt dizzy. He blinked several times and shook his head. After a short while, his vision cleared.

"That was weird," said Jane, who had experienced the same thing. "Some sort of knockout gas?"

"I suppose so," replied Jordan. "Why would he want to refine it like this? It looks like he's even liquefied it," he added, noticing a small bottle filled with green liquid.

"As a weapon?" suggested Jane. "He talks about hunting all sorts of animals in his journal."

"Yeah, you're probably right. Still, seems like a lot of effort to go to."

"It's not like he was pressed for time."

* * *

The static electricity in the air was making Maddy's hair stand on end, which was a sight that would cheer anyone up. Rachel pulled her phone out and snapped a picture before Maddy turned around.

"I think... I think I got it to work."

The two of them went down to the area with all the electrical equipment. Floating in the harbour was a large rock, with a small entrance hatch in the top. A bridge had extended from the area where they stood to meet the top of the ship.

"So... shall we?"

* * *

There was a small makeshift tent sitting in the clearing. Realising what this could hold, Jordan and Jane began to approach, but paused when the tent shuddered violently. The two of them froze and looked at one another.

"Wind?" mouthed Jane silently. The tent shuddered again. Jordan licked a finger and held it up, then shook his head. They crept closer.

There was a sudden shriek from inside the tent, and a tall animal emerged from the tent and ran directly into them, throwing them both violently to the side and towards the cliff edge.

Jane frantically grabbed at the first thing she felt, which happened to be Jordan. Jordan grabbed at the first thing he felt, which happened to be the tent.

The next discovery that Jordan and Jane made was that Achenar had not mastered the art of properly anchoring tents into the ground. Things escalated from there.


	6. Green

**5 – Green**

A tent is a very useful thing. It can provide shelter from the elements, a somewhat comfortable place to sleep, and even a level of protection.

A hang glider is a very useful thing. It can provide entertainment for those who like to take risks, and stop them from dying in the process.

Therefore, both tents and hang gliders are useful things.

However – and this is the key point – they don't fulfil the same functions.

Therefore, a tent should not be used as a hang glider.

These were the thoughts that chased each other through Jordan's head as he lay on the ground with several parts of his body saying that he should have just stayed at home today.

Something poked him. In such a diverse world as Haven, there was not enough data to determine whether this was a good or a bad thing. He opened his eyes.

Staring down at him was a monkey-like creature, with very large eyes and even larger ears. The expression on its face was one of baffled curiosity. Jordan blinked several times whilst his brain scrambled for the right action in this situation.

There was a sudden series of screeches – one high, one low, then high again. The creature looking down at Jordan looked up, suddenly alert, and let out a screeching cry of its own before bounding off into the trees. Jordan made to sit up, but was quickly forced back down when a large lion-like creature leapt over him with a growling roar and took off in pursuit of the monkey.

All in all, thought Jordan, as he sat up and helped Jane up, this has been a weird day.

* * *

The first thing that Rachel and Maddy thought as they climbed down Sirrus' crude rope ladder was – green. Lots of green.

This, incidentally, was not the first thing that Sirrus thought when he climbed down said ladder.

"Oh my -" Rachel's voice was lost – partly in her own awe, and partly in the fact that Maddy had just grabbed her arm rather tightly.

"No book, then," continued Rachel. (This is closer to what Sirrus thought.)

"No," replied Maddy, who was also looking green, not just due to the green light coming from below. "Can we go now?"

"Hang on..." said Rachel, her eyes falling on two devices. "Let me just..." She scurried over to the first one.

Maddy said a word. (This word is exactly what Sirrus thought.)

Rachel was pulling at a lever set into the rock, which appeared to be attached to a large wheel with chain wrapped around it. The lever was not moving, and Rachel's heels were precariously close to the edge of the beam they were standing on.

"Stop, Rach, you're going to fall," said Maddy, using as few words as she could to minimise the possibility of her throwing up. To her great relief, Rachel did stop.

"Hmmph," she grunted. "What does this do? I wish I could..." She pulled gently at the lever again, which still didn't move.

Maddy sighed, and looked at the wheel. "Piece of rock stuck there," she muttered, pointing. "Might be jamming it."

Rachel poked the rock shard out of the wheel. It floated away, as rocks generally don't do. This time, when Rachel pulled the lever, it moved easily, and the wheel spun with a clatter of chain.

"There we go."

"Awesome. Can we go now?"

"But I haven't even -"

"I'll wait up top."

* * *

Despite the potentially dangerous wildlife, Jordan thought, Haven's south jungle was one of the most breathtaking places he'd ever seen. He was a great lover of natural beauty, and this jungle was so diverse, bright and filled with sound that he thought it rivalled both Channelwood and Edanna in terms of beauty. I mean, the colours! The orange, the green, the -

"Dad?"

"Hmm?" Jordan snapped back to reality.

"You're talking out loud, you know."

"Oh." Jordan paused. "Sorry."

"I don't care," said Jane. "But you did say to be quiet in case one of those creatures hears us."

"Oh. Right."

Jordan and Jane had stopped near a break in the otherwise ubiquitous trees. The gap opened out into a vast clearing, filled with very long grass. Very long meaning, in this context, taller than Jane. Within the grass was a small network of worn paths, where the grass was either crushed underfoot or cut short. On one of these paths, directly in front of Jordan and Jane, stood two tall creatures, clearly of the same species of the one that came out of the tent. They were tall, taller than Jordan, and looked somewhat like a horse rearing up on its hind legs. Except they were completely bald, with dark pink skin.

"Well that's rubbish camoflague," muttered Jordan.

The creature closer to them heard. Its ears pricked up, and it looked up at them before giving a squeal and running away. The other creature also looked up, trying to see where its partner had gone, then it looked at Jordan and Jane as well, taking off with another squeal. Jane looked at Jordan, who shrugged slightly and proceeded forward cautiously.

The clearing was much brighter than the jungle had been, and the atmosphere was very dry, making it feel more like a savannah. The two creatures that ran off were walking somewhat majestically around in circles a few yards ahead, apparently oblivious to the presence of both Jordan and Jane.

Jordan's eye caught movement in the grass ahead, and he stopped. One of the lion-like creatures was slinking up through the long grass, approaching the blissfully unaware tall creatures. In a flash, it pounced, and one of the tall creatures pelted past Jordan and Jane. The other one probably didn't know what hit it, observed Jordan. Jane stifled a small noise.

The two of them crept past the lion-like creature, who was enjoying his freshly-caught lunch, and proceeded down the worn path. It dead-ended in a small cleared area containing two strange plants with strange bulbs growing off it.

"What are these things?" said Jordan under his breath. "I've never -"

There was a low growl from the other end of the small clearing, and the two of them looked up at its source – another one of the lion-like creatures was looking directly at the two of them, and advancing on them slowly.

"What do we do now?" hissed Jane.

"Uh... panic?" suggested Jordan.

Before they could execute their well-thought-out plan, however, the creature had advanced to next to the first bulbous plant. It appeared to inadvertently brush up against it. The plant recoiled, drawing up before letting out a rattling hiss and spewing green gas everywhere. The lion stopped in its tracks, before letting out a deep moaning growl and lurching forward. Jordan and Jane took two large steps backwards, but the lion was clearly not attacking them – it fell to the ground, unconscious, at their feet.

The second plant, which Jordan and Jane were standing fairly near to, recoiled as well. The creature had obviously knocked it on its way down. Before either Jordan or Jane had time to react, the plant let out a rattling hiss and expelled green gas. Immediately, Jordan and Jane both started feeling dizzy. It was a minute before Jordan's head cleared, and somewhat longer before Jane's did. Not wishing to hang around for the creature at their feet to wake up, Jordan half-carried Jane back to the relative safety of the jungle, where they sat down.

Jane groaned slightly. "I don't feel so great."

"Give it a minute," replied Jordan, offering her some water, "it should wear off."

It was two minutes before Jane recovered. They set off through the jungle again, commenting quietly on what had just happened. Jane was able to draw the parallel between this and the experience they had had with the gas in the bellows on the ship.

"These plants must produce that stunning gas as some sort of defence mechanism," theorised Jordan. "Achenar must have been trying to refine it into a sort of poison."

"Would he be able to eat the meat after poisoning it like that?"

"I dunno," replied Jordan, "but the gas knocked out that creature but only sort of stunned us – maybe it's less effective on us. Mind you, I don't know how often he actually ate it – I think he might just have done it for fun a lot of the time."

Jane grimaced at the idea of killing animals for fun. As far as she was concerned, shooting animals could only be called "sport" if the animals also had guns. It was an insight into Achenar's mind, though – he didn't see the need for intricate plans when force would work just as well. Sure, he could come up with plans when necessary, but if he didn't need to, he'd rather just whack you on the head and be done with it.

* * *

The chair.

It was one of the strangest things Rachel and Maddy had ever seen. Mounted on a slightly rasied circular section of floor, the chair itself was fairly plain. It was the spindly metal legs it sat on that made it bizarre – massive curving things, about three times as big as they needed to be, that stretched up over the top of the body of the chair and curved back down to the ground. Frankly, they made the chair look like a gigantic spider.

Throwing caution not quite to the wind but perhaps to the breeze, Rachel and Maddy sat down in the chair. It was wide enough to accommodate both of them, but they did have to get to know each other a bit better.

"This is cozy."

"Not quite the word I had in mind," muttered Rachel, reminding herself that she was happily married.

Maddy pressed a small blue button on the right arm of the chair. With a whirr and a clatter, a small control panel flicked over their heads and settled down in front of them. Around the edge were a lot of small green lights, which as they watched began to light up. Small icons down the side began to light up, each of which had numbers next to them. Four, then eleven, and finally thirty-six.

As the number 36 lit up with the last of the green lights, there was a sudden sparking and a splutter from a small device sitting not far from the chair, before the control panel went dead. Maddy poked at it, but it didn't respond. She pressed the blue button again, and it swung up back over their heads.

"What was that?"

"I don't know..." muttered Maddy. She lowered the panel again. This time, nothing happened at all. Little green lights, she mused. Thirty-six little green lights...

"I think," she continued slowly, "that for this chair to do whatever it is it does, we have to feed it 36 units of power. Remember the rocket on Myst? To get into it, we had to power it with 59 volts of power from the generators. I think this is the same sort of thing, but we need 36."

"So where's the power coming from?" asked Rachel. "From those lightning conductors we've been seeing?"

"I think so. You remember, there was the control box in the docking area? We lit up seven lights there."

"Oh!" said Rachel, catching on. "And in the upstairs garden, we turned on... three?"

"Two, I think," replied Maddy. "And then there was the third box, on the other spire. How many did we turn on there?"

"I have no idea," replied Rachel, "we were just messing around. There were a lot, though, weren't there?"

"Yeah, there were. So if we've got seven units of power coming from the dock, and two from the garden, we need to have..." she paused and counted on her fingers, "twenty-seven coming from there."

They made their way back over to the other spire, where they found the vast array of conductors and their controlling box. A quick count revealed that they had activated 31 of the available 34 units.

"So we need 27," said Rachel. "That can't be too difficult."

As it turned out, it was. They struggled with the controls of the box for several minutes, coming up empty-handed several times, before stopping.

"This is ridiculous," muttered Maddy darkly. "Twenty-seven can't be that difficult. What's that we've got now? Twenty-nine. Close, but not close enough."

"Actually," said Rachel, "I think it might be close enough."

"Explain?"

"We need thirty-six, right? If we leave this on twenty-nine, we'll have thirty-eight. So, why don't we just go back over there and deactivate the box in the garden? That'll get rid of two and give us thirty-six."

Maddy paused to think about this. "Won't that disable the ship?"

"Well, yeah. But if we're back over there with everything set up all right, we won't need to use it again, will we?"

"That's true," replied Maddy. "Actually, yeah. That would work. Let's try that."

Back in the cavern with the chair, they sat down again and pulled the panel back over towards them. They were somewhat disappointed when nothing happened.

"Dammit," muttered Maddy, "but we've got it right, haven't we? Seven in the dock, twenty-nine on the far island... is thirty-six."

"When we first came down here," said Rachel slowly, "it started to light up then something sparked and it stopped. If this is like the rocket on Myst... maybe we tripped a breaker somewhere?"

* * *

Jordan slid the last glass tube upwards slightly. It settled into place with the softest of clicks. Jordan nodded at Jane, who pulled on the paddle. It moved down smoothly, unlike the last time they had tried it.

The glass tubes dropped slowly back into their housing, and there was a clattering of makeshift gears as a large counterweight crate of cannonballs slid upwards in its housing and the bridge came clattering down.

"Nice," said Jane.

"Clever," replied Jordan. "He kept going on about how those animals were getting into his things. He must have put this together to keep them out."

They had reached the hut on the lake. Close up, it didn't look quite as nice as it had from a distance. The window in the door was shattered, and the door itself hung from one hinge.

"Looks like he wasn't clever enough," said Jane.

They pulled the door open, then dodged it as it fell. The inside of the hut was rather messy as well, and there were bits of paper strewn everywhere. Sitting intact on the bed, however, was another journal, which Jordan and Jane examined with interest, noting the obvious change in Achenar's frame of mind between this and the last journal. The only other things they found that were of interest were tattered pieces of paper with pictures of the monkey-like creatures on them, which Jordan put into his pocket mainly because he thought the drawings were nice.

Further along, the wooden bridge gave way to a wooden pathway through the even more lush and brightly-lit north jungle, and the wooden path soon gave way to a strip on the ground with no grass. Finally, the path split in two – to the left, the path sloped up gently until it reached a large tree with crude steps set into its trunk; to the right, the path dropped over a small steep cliff with a ladder leaning up against it before continuing around a large clearing.

"So where now?"

"I think..." Jordan muttered, considering the dead end to the left, "that we go down the ladder."

"Check." Jane set her foot on the top rung of the ladder. There was a sudden growling roar, and one of the lion-like creatures came bounding towards the ladder. Jane jerked her foot back up, lost her balance and fell backwards onto Jordan. The lion, unable to climb the ladder or get up the steep slope, stood grumpily at the bottom of the ladder, snarling at Jordan and Jane.

"Okay... maybe not."

With no other option apart from backtracking, Jordan and Jane took the left fork, moving quickly up to the tree and climbing up into the crude treehouse that Achenar had constructed. It gave a perfect view of the clearing, and the five trees that bordered it. Each tree had what looked like a nest at the top of it. There were four of the monkey-like creatures ambling around, mostly carefree, down in the clearing near a small pit, which appeared to have one of the plants that gave off the poison gas in it.

As they watched from the treehouse, the lion creature came slinking back into the clearing, low to the ground and creeping up on the monkeys. One of them saw it, however, and let out a cry of warning. The monkeys scattered, bounding up the trees and into the nests. The lion attempted to run after all four of them at once, and failed. He leapt at one of the trees and scrabbled in vain, before laying off and waiting patiently at the bottom of the tree.

"We could probably sneak past him now."

"You've got to be kidding," replied Jane.

"Yeah... that was a pretty stupid idea. So... what do we do?"

Jane was looking down at the clearing, frowning slightly. "I think... I think we could get the monkeys to run back and forth a bit over those vines between the nests. The lion will chase them back and forth, right? If we can get him to fall into the pit, the plant should be able to stun him."

Jordan thought on this for a minute. "Sounds like it could work. And it's not like I have a better idea or anything. So how do we make them run back and forth?"

"These wheels," Jane indicated the three wheels on the wall of the treehouse. She turned one of them. A deep moaning noise echoed from underneath the treehouse. Jane turned another wheel. A higher-pitched noise pierced the air this time.

Out in the clearing, one of the nests flicked open. A monkey leapt out and bounded across one of the vines. The lion let out a snarl and leapt to the tree that the monkey had moved to.

"See?" said Jane. "And I think those papers you picked up will tell us how to use these wheels."

Jordan fished the papers out of his pocket. There were four of them, and they each bore a drawing of one of the monkeys, as well as a small grid underneath with long and short lines in it.

"Pattern of sounds?" muttered Jordan. He stepped over to the wheels and turned the left one for one second, then the right one for half a second. One of the monkeys leapt from a nest and bounded across the vines, with the lion hot in pursuit down on the ground.

Jordan and Jane struggled with the wheels for another five minutes, moving monkeys and moving the lion, until finally the lion slipped and landed in the pit. It struggled, heaving itself out of the pit, claws slipping, as the deadly plant next to it recoiled, ready to defend itself.

As Jordan and Jane watched on, enraptured, the lion pulled itself out of the pit and stumbled over towards the tree. Several seconds later, the plant hissed and gave off its green gas.

"Dammit," muttered Jordan, "too slow. So what now?"

"I don't -" Jane said as she turned around. There was another diagram on the back wall of the treehouse. This one, however, showed something slightly different – one of the monkeys was throwing some fruit. Jane recalled reading in Achenar's journal that the creatures loved throwing fruit.

"What if... what if we get them to throw some fruit at the plant? I think that might work."

With a little more manipulation, they managed to get the lion back in the pit. Hurriedly, Jane spun the wheels as shown on the drawing on the wall. One of the creatures opened its nest – but nothing happened.

"Why -"

"He didn't have anything to throw," said Jordan, anticipating the question. "That combination must make that creature specifically throw some fruit. But he didn't have any. There's some in that nest there." He pointed at the furthest left nest. A large vine of fruit was situated right next to it.

"So we've got to get him in that nest, and get the lion in the pit?" replied Jane. "Wow. That sounds tough."

It was, it turned out. It took the combined intellects of Jordan and Jane fifteen minutes to finally position everything correctly. The creature was in the nest with the fruit, the lion was lined up with the pit, and the next combination would send him in.

"Ready?" asked Jane. Jordan nodded, and Jane turned the wheels. The creature leapt across the vines, the lion landed in the pit. Struggling. Jane worked the wheels frantically. Nest opened. Grabbed some fruit. Took aim -

Jordan and Jane smiled and shared a high-five.

* * *

"So what you're saying is... we have to make them vibrate?"

"I think so," muttered Rachel. "See, he goes on about them in his notes. Blue crystal, quartz, rock and nara. Talks about how much electricity is needed to destabalise each one."

Maddy rummaged in her pocket and pulled out some of Sirrus' notes. Rachel did the same. There were at least half a dozen of them total, and they had bits of info and diagrams drawn on them in Sirrus' characteristic cursive scrawl.

"See, here," said Rachel. "He says rock needs no more than 20 units of power total."

"Right, I get you. Wait, wait, wait..." Maddy searched through her stack of paper, "here's one... quartz. He's written three numbers here."

"That must be how much power we have to put into each line to disrupt the quartz," replied Rachel. "What are the numbers?"

"Eight... twelve... and four."

"So if I..." Rachel slid the leftmost slider upwards. As she moved it up, she heard small clicks, and the green lights around the edge of the control panel winked off one by one. When eight lights had gone off, she moved to the middle slider. Twelve lights turned out to be right to the very top. Finally, she turned four lights off with the right slider.

A small rattling, clicking noise cut in over the rhythmic drone of electricity. Maddy pointed at one of the rock samples. It was rattling around in its casing.

"Nice. So... what else have we got?"

The two of them puzzled away for several minutes, deducing the appropriate combination of sliders for each sample. Some of it was a little bit of trial and error, some of it was more deductive, but eventually they worked out all four combinations.

"So... now what?"

"Knowing Sirrus," said Rachel, "I'd say we have to have all four samples vibrating at the same time. I think this is like a lock."

It was difficult. Although the samples stayed vibrating for a time after they repositioned the sliders, that time was different for all of them. They ended up timing how long it took each sample to stop vibrating, so they could do the longest first.

"Right, this time for sure. Ready?"

"Mhm."

"Okay. Quartz." They worked the sliders, and the quartz sample started to buzz. "Blue crystal." More sliders, more humming. "Rock..." The rattling of the rock sample. "And... nara."

More rattling, not just from the nara sample. Several of the floating rocks, tethered by chains, moved upwards, causing a large bridge to descend and slot into place in front of them, leading over to the small area beyond.

"Nice," said Rachel. "Now let's get out of this chair."


	7. Rendezvous

**6 – Rendezvous**

Brittany limped towards the elevator. While the others were away, she'd been busying herself in Atrus' workshop. At first, she was trying to get Atrus back on the crystal viewer. After several attempts, she had started examining the device itself. It really was astonishing – they had, of course, first seen it nearly twenty years ago on Rime, which Atrus had written for the express purpose of experimenting with the crystals, since they required some very cold temperatures in order to function. But very recently, he said in his journal, he had managed to create a sort of cooling unit for the viewer, allowing it to function in Tomahna.

The sound unit on the viewer was also new. A clever idea, Brittany had thought, reading about it in the journal, capitalising on the interference that Atrus had noticed was messing with the viewer. And Atrus' latest planned improvement to the viewer, Brittany had read, was a sort of "moving eye" attachment. This, however, was still just an idea, it seemed.

The elevator docked at the station near Atrus and Catherine's bedroom, and Brittany stepped out slowly. She paused. Her ankle might have been broken, but her wits were not, and she was sure she'd left the moving bridge directed from the kitchen over to here, not down towards Yeesha's room. This was -

Crash. The unmistakeable sound of breaking glass echoed up from Yeesha's room. Brittany's brain snapped into action, considering the situation. She had a broken ankle, was unarmed, and whoever it was that was down there was unlikely to be friendly. So, she had two options. She could confront whoever was down there, or she could make a tactical withdrawal. Based on the situation, and based on the fact that she saw a shadow moving towards the door of Yeesha's room, she chose the second option, and stepped backwards into the elevator. The door slid closed with perfect timing. She peered cautiously through the window on the door.

The figure standing on the wooden dock outside Yeesha's room was rather tall – certainly too tall to be anyone she knew. It was holding something in its hand. As she watched, it held the object out over the lake and vanished.

That, thought Brittany, was kind of anticlimactic. Still, she was grateful for that. She opened the elevator door and proceeded cautiously down to Yeesha's room.

The room was an absolute wreck. Chairs were upended, the bed was unmade, books littered the floor and one of the glass cabinets under the bookshelf had been smashed. Brittany couldn't see anything missing, but then she hadn't been down here all that often.

There was the sound of running footsteps, before Rachel burst into the room, followed closely by Maddy.

"Britt! What's going on? We saw someone – what the hell happened here?" exclaimed Rachel with one breath.

"Someone's been in here," replied Brittany. "I don't know who. All I saw was someone come out from here with a book and link out."

The discussion proceeded as Jordan and Jane arrived. The book that the intruder had used to escape, they determined, had landed on the small dock under Yeesha's room.

"So was anything actually taken?" Maddy asked. "Jane?"

"Um..." Jane looked around the room, and her eyes settled on the broken glass cabinets underneath the bookshelf. "Yeah. I think so. There was a book… under there." She pointed to the leftmost cabinet, which was now empty except for a few shards of broken glass.

"A journal?"

"I don't know," replied Jane. "But I don't think so. She kept her journal… there." She pointed at the bed. The pillow had fallen to the ground, and underneath was a small green book.

"Wait," said Jordan, "she does keep a journal? That could be useful."

"You really think we should read her journal?"

"If it helps us find her," replied Jordan, "I don't think she'll mind that much." He picked up the green book and thumbed through it. It was a colourful book, with pictures meticulously coloured with bright reds and yellows. More interesting to Jordan, however, was the constant mention of an age called Serenia.

Rachel was reading over his shoulder. "Serenia. I've heard that name before. I think… yeah, Catherine mentioned it to me once. Just in passing. She said that Yeesha had been spending a lot of time there."

"Oh yeah," piped up Jane suddenly. "She told me that's where she got her necklace."

"I think," said Jordan, "that we ought to pay a visit to Serenia. Jane? Do you know how we can get there?"

"No," said Jane simply.

"I wouldn't mind betting," said Brittany, "that the book down on Yeesha's dock will help us with that problem."

"You might be right there," said Jordan. "If whoever used that book is looking for Yeesha, they'd be working along the same lines as we are."

* * *

Damned chair! He's starting to get very annoyed here. This was working perfectly before! Why… is… it… not… working?

The girl is still struggling at her restraints, although she's being much quieter about it now. Still, he must be running short on time by now. Perhaps he needs to take a break from this for a little while. Go harvest the globes, maybe? It'll be no use getting the chair working unless he's got some globes.

Yes… good idea. It'll take him a little while to get the globes. Without a word to the girl, he stalks off down the stairs and out into the light.

* * *

"How's it going?"

Jordan and Rachel turned around as Maddy and Brittany came into the room.

"Well… near as we can tell, it's the classic bookshelf combination. Press a series of books in the right order and something happens."

"That's pretty vague." Brittany limped over and looked at Yeesha's journal.

"Well, there's this line here…" Jordan picked up the journal and ran his finger down the page. "Here. She says that she changed the code recently. And she says that she won't forget who's older than who any more."

"Hm." Brittany mulled this over in her mind for a second. "So what are the books?"

"Well, you'd be better qualified to answer that than we would," replied Jordan. "The covers are written in D'ni."

Brittany looked at the shelf. The titles written down the side of the books were all single D'ni words. She frowned as she scanned the shelf slowly, translating in her head and muttering under her breath, until she came to one interesting one.

"Hold on – here." She indicated one of the books. "That says 'Atrus'." She continued looking. "And that one there… that says 'Yeesha'."

"Oh, I think I get it," said Rachel. "We have to press the books corresponding to the members of the family, in order of their ages."

"That makes sense," said Maddy. "So, Yeesha's the youngest, obviously. But what about the rest?"

"Um… Atrus is older than Catherine," said Rachel.

"Okay… and I think Achenar is older than Sirrus," said Jordan. "Achenar calls Sirrus 'little brother' in his journals."

"Right. So do we go from youngest up, or eldest down?"

"Dunno," said Brittany. "We'll just have to try one and see." She stepped forward. "So, let's see… Yeesha, Sirrus, Achenar, Catherine, Atrus." She pressed firmly on five books. Each one slid backwards about an inch. The result was somewhat anticlimactic – all that appeared to happen was that the books slid back out.

"Must be the other way, then," said Brittany. She pressed the same books in the reverse order. After she pressed the last book, there was a distinct click. After a second, the entire bookshelf slid smoothly downwards into the floor. A small panel of wood flopped down and covered the shelf, revealing a small round hole in the floor behind and a ladder leading down.

"Right. This won't take a sec." Brittany ducked under the slightly low arch of the opening left by the bookshelf and climbed down the ladder. As she did so, the bookshelf slid back up, clicking into place quietly. A few seconds later, the shelf slid down again, and Brittany came back up the ladder with the book clasped under her arm.

The four of them headed back up to the kitchen, where they found Jane raiding Atrus and Catherine's pantry. After Rachel told her off, they regrouped around the book.

"So… should we just go straight through?" Rachel, ever the cautious one, had spotted a small problem.

"If there's no return book on the other end," she continued, "we could be in trouble."

"True," replied Maddy, "but really, do we have much choice?"

"We could find a spare book and take it with us just in case."

"Well yeah, but where does Atrus -"

"Where's Jane?" Brittany suddenly broke in. All four of them looked down at the book on the table.

"Um -"

"Hi guys." Jane bounced across the bridge and sat down.

"Where did -"

"There is a book there," said Jane, apparently oblivious to her mother's growing annoyance.

"We were still -"

"I know."

"It could have been -"

"I know."

"What if -"

"Give up," interrupted Brittany, "and just be glad there was a book there."

Rachel paused, seemingly unsure, then decided this was good advice. Brittany winked at Jane, who grinned back.

"Come on then… let's not waste any more time."

* * *

The morning air was cold, but that didn't bother Anya. She walked briskly towards the Hall of Spirits. It was early enough that none of the others would be there.

Things weren't right – she could feel it. The strangers hadn't yet arrived, and they had been expecting them yesterday. Had something happened to them?

And – something else. Something… sinister. Things were going to turn bad very soon.

* * *

They linked into a small cave that looked out onto a serene forest. It wasn't a conventional forest, mind you – the trees were tall and thin, and they were interspersed with large stones. Just ahead of them, a smaller stone was venting a plethora of water bubbles into the air. Behind them, the large stone pedestal that looked very much like it should have held a book was empty, and the ground next to it that looked very much like it should not have held a book did.

"The book was there when I came through," said Jane. "It must have been knocked off for some reason."

"Hm." Maddy picked up the book. "It seems… kind of weird. I mean… unless someone deliberately dropped it on the ground, it must have been knocked off. Right?"

"Yeah, I suppose -"

As Jane laid a hand on the cold stone of the pedestal, she was interrupted by the now almost familiar chime of Yeesha's necklace. Almost instinctively, she touched it.

_She's surprised. Her reflexes are sharp. She lunges for the book. But he's quick too. He's right behind her. Grabs her. The book flies off and lands open on the ground. She cries out. Struggles. But it's no good; he's too strong…_

Jane shuddered – she still wasn't used to seeing these memories. She relayed the memory to the others, who were waiting with baited breath.

"So Yeesha did come here," mused Rachel. "Well, we're on the right track, anyway."

The five of them proceeded cautiously along the path leading through the stone forest. As beautiful as this age was, they'd learnt long ago not to take such surface beauty for granted – they still couldn't tell whether or not this was indeed Serenia, and it was impossible to tell what they might encounter next.

As they neared a small wooden bridge, Rachel, who was in front, stopped dead and threw out her hands, gesturing for the others to stop as well. After she listened for a minute, she gestured for them to crouch down behind the nearest stone, which they did. As they watched cautiously, a tall, well-built, scruffily-dressed man stalked along the path beyond the bridge. From his demeanour, they gathered that he was probably not friendly.

"Who was that?"

"I recognised him from somewhere," muttered Jordan.

"So did I," said Jane. "Wasn't that Achenar?"

There was a brief pause. "Yes…" Jordan said slowly. "Yes, that's who it was."

"What's he doing here?"

"I don't know, but whatever it is, it's bound to be dodgy." Maddy, ever the brave one, stood up. "I bet he's got something to do with Yeesha."

They continued through the forest, both marvelling at its beauty and jumping at its noises. Only once did they see anything interesting, though – they had rounded a corner, passing by a strange wooden structure, and off to the side was a smallish round pool of water, rimmed by a stone basin. Inside the basin was what appeared to be a fountain; a spout of water was spewing into the air, about as tall as Jane was. When they looked a little closer, though, it appeared to have the faint outline of eyes within the water. Before they could get a proper look, the water spout suddenly dropped back into the water and the pool became still very suddenly.

"Yeesha had written about something like that in her journal," muttered Jordan. "Something about a – what was it? A spirit, or something."

"Spirit guide?" said Jane. "She was talking about spirit guides at some point."

"That might have been it, yeah. If it was, it probably means this is Serenia."

By this point they had reached the edge of the forest. The path they were on sloped gently down a flight of stairs before meeting a wider stone path. To their right, the path wound back into the forest, but to their left it curved down towards a large stone arch. Having already seen much of the forest, the five of them proceeded towards the arch.

As they rounded the bend in the path, they caught sight of a tall woman under the arch. She turned to face them. Clad in long loose-fitting robes, with a necklace similar to Yeesha's around her neck and a painted dark blue line from her forehead down to the bridge of her nose, her features were friendly and she seemed to radiate an aura of calmness. The five strangers stopped, but all of them were intuitively aware that this woman was not a threat.

"I was starting to worry about you."

This was not the introduction any of them had been expecting. The woman smiled very slightly and moved slowly towards them, out from under the arch.

"In the dream, you always arrived before third bell." She bowed slightly. "Welcome to Serenia. I am Anya, one of six now serving as Protector here."

"We're in the right place, anyway," muttered Jordan.

"You are," said Anya. "You will probably not believe this, but my sisters and I dreamed that you would be coming."

"Um…"

"You're searching for Yeesha." For the first time, a shadow of worry crept onto Anya's face, and she touched her necklace lightly. "I fear she may be in trouble."

"We think so, yes," said Rachel somewhat hesitantly. This conversation was not going the way it had gone in her head, particularly the bit about dreaming they were coming.

"Yes… but, we have not seen her since we gave her the necklace two weeks ago."

Rachel sighed. "We were sure she'd come here…"

"We believe she may have done," said Anya. "I will gather my sisters in the Hall of Spirits, and we will try and find out more. In the meantime, you should consult the Memory Chamber. She always knows more about what's going on in this land than we do."

Anya directed them towards the Memory Chamber, then walked away, leaving them rather confused. They were standing in the middle of a large bare courtyard, with four paths extending out from it. Behind them lay the stone forest, and ahead of them lay the rest of Serenia, including the Chamber they had been directed to. To their right, a small path extended out to a serene gazebo overlooking a shallow pond. But the most imposing feature of the courtyard was to the left – a steep flight of stairs led up to the door of a massive stone building, covered in intricate engravings and standing at least three times as tall as Jordan and Rachel's house in the desert.

Eventually they decided that they should probably pause for a moment and work out what was going on. They went over to the small gazebo and sat down on the stone benches inside.

"So," said Maddy, "where are we at now?"

"We know we've made it to Serenia," said Rachel. "We know that – for whatever reason – that woman knew we were coming."

"She said that she – what was it? She dreamed we'd be coming?"

"I think I've heard about this," said Jane. "Yeesha's been talking for weeks and weeks about 'learning to dream'. I think these people have some way of communicating with their ancestors, which they call 'dreaming'."

"What, you mean like necromancy?"

"Er, I don't think so. The way Yeesha talks about it, it sounds sort of like they enter some special sort of sleep and speak to their ancestors like that."

"That's… okay. Yeah. Whatever works." Brittany frowned slightly. "And they think Yeesha came here?"

"But they haven't seen her," qualified Rachel. "So what do we do now?"

"Our best bet is probably to go see this Memory Chamber," said Jordan. "If that woman thought it could help us, it's probably worth going and having a look at least."

They made their way down the path that Anya had indicated. At the bottom of a steep flight of stairs, the path curved to the right around a large deep pool of water that had several cables reaching down into its depths. As they watched, however, the cables started to move, bringing a squeaking, rattling sound with them.

"Should we move?" muttered Maddy.

"I think we're okay," said Jordan, "this place seems pretty safe."

Before they could continue their discussion, a large submarine-like structure emerged from the pool, winched upwards by the cables they had seen. There was a small glass window in the front, and through this the five strangers could see a man standing with a small blue globe in his hand. As they watched, he started to gather more of the blue globes into a small sack, before he paused and looked up, directly at them. All five of them drew breath sharply – they recognised the man now as Sirrus. His eyes widened as he saw the five strangers watching him, and he immediately began to gather the globes with added haste. He pulled open a small hatch on the other side of the capsule and clambered out. As he did, he turned and threw something back into the capsule before vanishing.

A high-pitched noise split the air. Maddy recognised the sound immediately and pushed the others down onto the ground.

"What -"

A blast of green light shone from the capsule window, and a small explosion rocked the area. When they got back up off the ground, the window that had been in the front had vanished, presumably dropping down into the depths of the water. As they walked around to the other side of the capsule, they saw that the rear hatch that Sirrus had presumably exited through was lying on the ground, torn from its hinges, and had landed on a small control box near the hatchway, rendering the levers on it broken and unusable.

"Wow," said Jordan. "I hope that wasn't important."

* * *

He steps inside the old chamber and locks the door behind him. That was too close. He'd always known that using the Harvester would be risky, but if anything he'd been expecting to be caught by one of the Protectors. But them! How did they -

Gah! He knows this is starting to turn against him. Got to hurry, while he still has the advantage. Got to get the transfer done. Got to get the chair working.


	8. Stone

**7 – Stone**

It wasn't entirely clear to the strangers what the function of the large submersible vehicle was, but they guessed that it was important.

The logic behind this guess was mostly predicated upon the young woman who had just come down the stairs in front of them, looking flustered and swearing quite loudly at the sight of the blown-up submersible. She appeared to be completely oblivious of the five strangers standing only a few feet from her.

"Oh god, what happened? This is terrible! How are we…" The woman carried on like this for several more sentences, leaving the five strangers to simply stand there awkwardly (the woman was blocking the stairs) before she finally seemed to register their presence.

"Oh, I'm so sorry. Forgive me – I've seen your faces so often in Dream that I forget that you're still strangers here."

Jordan waved away the apology. "So, uh, what's this thing for?"

"Oh, right… um… you've been inside the Memory Chamber, right?" They nodded. "The lights on the walls, the colourful lights – they're the memories of our people. We use the memory globes to preserve the memories of our ancestors, so that we can still stay in contact with them after they die. But the globes only grow deep underwater, and we use the Harvester to collect them. So if I can't fix it…" She bit her tongue. "I'll check out how bad the damage is." She started off down the path towards the Memory Chamber, but pasued and turned back to the five strangers.

"Oh – I was supposed to tell you… a few of my sisters have gathered in the Hall of Spirits to dream. If you go there after they wake, you might be able to learn more about what's happened to Yeesha. And, uh, good luck." She scurried off down the path, leaving Jordan, Rachel, Maddy, Brittany and Jane to return to the bench in the central square.

"I really don't get this place," sighed Rachel. "They store memories? How does that work?"

"Dunno. But have you noticed how they talk about death like it's… nothing? Just something that happens?"

"I suppose that for people that can remain in contact with their family even after they die, it isn't really a big deal. But you saw how worried that Protector was when she realised that they might not be able to farm any – what was it? Globes, or something."

"Very philosophical, Britt, but that hardly matters right now," said Maddy. "I think we ought to go to this Hall of Spirits. It could be useful."

"Sounds good to me," said Jordan. "I'd guess that that," he pointed at the massive stone building across the plaza from them, "is the Hall of Spirits. And if it isn't, I'm sure that someone in there can point us in the right direction."

Together, they trooped across the courtyard to the stone building. Slowly, still cautious despite the generally warm welcome they had gotten from this age so far, they climbed the steps and went inside.

"Um…"

Three women were seated inside the chamber – at least, they assumed they were women. They were completely motionless, and were wearing very bizarre masks that were slightly terrifying. They did not seem to have registered the presence of the five strangers at all.

"Maybe we should come back later," muttered Jordan. Even as he said it, however, the mask on the woman seated directly in front of them snapped back and vanished into thin air. The woman opened her eyes and looked up at the five of them watching her. She smiled warmly.

"Do not be afraid – my sisters and I can speak with you now." The woman stood up. She was tall – taller than either of the other women they'd seen so far – and had a deep red stripe painted down from her forehead to the bridge of her nose.

"Anya told us you needed help. So, while you explored this… shall we say physical manifestation of Serenia, we travelled to her mirror realm."

"Mirror realm?"

"Yes. A world in which our ancestors have great power. We call it 'Dream'."

It seemed to become oddly cold in the Hall of Spirits all of a sudden. All five strangers shivered, but the woman did not seem to notice.

"We asked the Ancestors to show us what happened to Yeesha… but what they told us made little sense. We believe this means the message is intended for you." The woman's expression now became steely. "This disturbed us, as it means that one of you will need to travel to Dream. And you must never travel to Dream without a spirit guide."

"Oh…" Jane said almost inadvertently, feeling like she suddenly understood a lot more.

"Now normally, finding the guide that is best suited to your true nature takes some time."

"How long?"

"Several months." Both Brittany and Jane made protesting noises. "But we do not have several months. So we will help find your guide."

A small stone table rose from the floor of the room, and the woman placed a woven cloth onto it. Above the cloth, a churning ball of water appeared, edged by flame and wisps of blueish wind. The ball settled down onto the cloth, spreading into a large circle on the cloth. The woman nodded and looked up at the strangers, surveying them each individually. Then she pointed at Jane.

"You, my dear. I think you would be best suited for this."

"What? No!" exclaimed Rachel. "She's far too young to -"

"I am not -"

"Younger people have more open minds," said the woman calmly. "They are more able to learn to dream, readily and easily. Older people are less like that. They have more difficulty. All Serenians learn to dream during their childhood."

"But -"

"Rach," said Brittany, "calm down." She turned to the woman. "Are there risks associated with dreaming? Is it… dangerous?"

"Only if done without a guide," replied the woman. "So long as you have a guide, it's quite safe."

"I want to do it," said Jane. Rachel looked to Jordan, then Maddy, then sighed.

"Well… I suppose if it's safe…"

"Good," said the woman. "Simply touch the cloth so we can determine which guide you will need to seek." She sat back down, and the mask reappeared around her head.

"All right, Jane," said Brittany. Jane stepped forward and cautiously touched the cloth.

There was a hiss, and the water that had been covering the cloth vanished. Jane removed her hand – there was a vivid imprint of her palm on the cloth, with several lines glowing different colours along its surface. After a second, the lines settled onto a very pale blue colour.

There was a snap as the mask on the woman sitting to their right opened and vanished. She stood up and approached them, smiling.

"The weave of your actions has spoken, my dear," she said to Jane. "Attracted by challenge and diversity, moving swiftly to the heart of the matter, but willing to take time to understand it when necessary – you are a child of wind. You must seek the Wind Guide to accompany you. Go to the forest, and seek him in the glades where the pollen seeds cluster. The mark you bear in you will gain his attention. Be carrying the offering that most pleases his senses, and he should agree to accompany you to Dream. There is only one such offering."

The woman bent over and picked up the cloth from the table, passing it to Jane. "This cloth is yours to keep. Do with it as you will. When you have successfully attracted the Wind Guide, proceed to the Memory Chamber. Zanika," the woman indicated the other woman who had spoken to them earlier, "will be waiting for you there. Good luck."

She sat back down, and the mask closed back over her face, leaving the five strangers to troop back down to the stone courtyard.

Jane examined the cloth in her hands. The handprint on it was as distinct as ever, and several lines on it were highlighted in a glowing cyan colour. There was a faint but distinct whistling of wind eminating from it. She gave the cloth to Rachel, who folded it carefully and put it away in her satchel.

"So… we have to – you have to – find this… Wind Guide?" said Rachel to Jane.

"I suppose so," replied Jane. "You remember that water spout thing we saw earlier? I think that was a Water Guide."

"So, if the Water Guide is a manifestation of water," said Jordan, "I suppose the Wind Guide is some sort of manifestation of wind."

They sat down in the bench they had been frequenting, still talking. They were so deep in conversation that they were rather startled when they were interrupted.

"She will be all right, won't she?"

The five of them turned to face the source of the new voice. Anya was standing near the water, with a large bowl of what looked like seeds or bread crumbs in her hand, throwing small handfuls of them out over the water. Small butterfly-like creatures drifted down from the air to feed on the seeds.

"I mean," continued Anya, turning to face the strangers, "you won't stop looking until you find her?"

There was genuine concern in Anya's face. All five strangers were touched by the concern that Anya – someone not related to Yeesha in any way – was showing for the girl. Rachel nodded.

Anya managed a small smile. "Yeesha used to come here every morning when she stayed with us. She'd spend hours feeding the butterflies." Anya paused, offering the bowl to Jane, who took it hesitantly and threw some seeds out. "She appreciated them more than anyone else in her family, I think." The Protector gave the strangers a pointed look. "Including Sirrus and Achenar."

All five of the strangers tensed noticeably at the mention of Atrus' sons.

"Sirrus and Achenar… have visited you?" said Brittany slowly.

"Visited, yes. Stayed here for several weeks, when they were younger. I wasn't a Protector at the time, but I'm told they were less interested in natural beauty and more in the Memory Chamber and our funeral rites… as if death were something to be feared." For a second, an odd look flitted over Anya's face when she said this, but she dispelled it quickly, and spoke seriously again.

"Which one of you will be going to Dream?"

At this stage, the strangers were barely surprised that Anya knew about their upcoming voyage to Dream – indeed, what surprised them more was that she didn't know which of them would be going.

"Me," said Jane after a pause, handing Anya back the bowl of seed.

Anya smiled – a proper smile this time. "Good. I suggest you make a start on locating your guide. The sooner this is all over, the better."

* * *

Yes… yes, it's the only way. Can't let him… can't let him do it. Only way to stop him from doing it… is to take the stone. Take the stone… it'll kill the flower. Throw the entire age into chaos… but it'll stop him.

That's what matters.

* * *

Jane cursed as a gust of wind whipped through the clearing and the seed in her hands disintegrated yet again. Rachel told her off for her language, and they trooped back to the tree.

This was about her fifth attempt at this, which was proving more difficult than she thought it would. On the second try, she'd managed to get to right in front of what they had worked out was the Wind Guide before the seed fell apart. That had set them back, as the Guide then relocated to a different glade and they had to go find him again.

Jane held out her hand and caught another seed. Moving slowly and deliberately, she cupped her other hand over the seed to shield it from the wind, then started off down the path. She took such small steps and turned so slowly that it seemed like a very long way to the glade, when in reality it was not that far.

She turned. The Wind Guide hovered before her, taking the form of a small tornado with small ornate eyes towards the top of it. Dust whipped around the base of the tornado, but Jane did not feel any actual breeze. She opened her hands and held out the seed.

The world seemed to hesitate, then the seed was lifted from her hands. It was carried by an unseen hand up to the tornado, where it suddenly vanished in a shower of sparks. The Guide looked at Jane for another second, before vanishing as well.

Jane turned to Rachel. "I think it worked."

"Awesome. Come on, let's find the others."

As they emerged from the stone forest, they did indeed find the others, who were hurrying towards them from the direction of the Memory Chamber.

"We've done it," said Jane.

"Cool," said Brittany. "Listen, we've just run into Achenar."

Rachel and Jane blinked. "What?"

"He was coming out of some underground chamber. He was carrying this big stone with a lot of holes in it. He said he was just taking it for a while, to stop Sirrus."

"He said," continued Maddy, "that Sirrus had kidnapped Yeesha. And he said not to let Atrus come here."

"He told us to find his journal in the forest," finished Jordan, "which will apparently explain everything. We were just going to look for it."

"Let's do that later," said Rachel. "For now, Jane's ready to go to Dream – I think we need to get down to the Memory Chamber."

* * *

_A/N: Just a few quick notes. First, I must once again apologise for the delay in uploads. Rest assured, I will not be abandoning this story; I've been busy with other things as well as a few stories for other fandoms._

_Second, I've also decided that I will not be writing a Strangers in Paradise story for Myst V. The time gap between Myst IV and Myst V would be prohibitive - while it's been established that the Grower can link through time, and would presumably be capable of linking others through time, I just feel that any way of getting my five characters to jump ahead in time by 200 years would feel a little too much like deus ex machina, and given how old Yeesha and Atrus appear in Myst V, I can't have it set at the same time. As such, I am not currently planning another Myst-based Strangers in Paradise story after this one, although I did have the idea in the back of my head about possibly writing one surrounding Atrus telling my characters about the history of D'ni and his family history (as in, adaptations of the Book of Ti'ana and the Book of Atrus). I would like to get some feedback on this idea._

_That brings me to my third point - I am currently planning on writing a Strangers in Paradise story for Cyan's upcoming game, Obduction, when it is eventually released. Whether this will tie in with the Myst stories or whether it will be completely separate from them is something I haven't worked out yet._

_In the meantime - enjoy!_


	9. Non Sequitur

**8 – Non Sequitur**

He flicks a few last switches into position, tightens the last few wires – and it's done. Ready. He wires up the globe and turns to the struggling girl.

"Time to see whether my twenty years wait has paid off," he says, more to himself than her. He places his hand on the lever.

"This might hurt," he says to the girl. "Probably does. I dunno. You know what?" A slightly sickly grin spreads over his face as he pushes the lever down. "You tell me."

* * *

"Time," said Zanika to nobody in particular, "seems to be against us."

She turned to face the five strangers, who looked at each other, then back at her.

"Fortunately," she continued, now addressing Jane, "there is very little I could say to prepare you for what you are about to experience. The mirror realm is different to all who travel there. But your guide will be waiting in his true form to meet you, and he will explain what you need to know."

She gestured to the stone bed behind her. Jane stepped up to the bed and climbed tentatively onto it. Despite being made entirely of stone, it was surprisingly comfortable.

Above the bed, a large flat slab of stone was held vertically in place by a series of ropes. As Jane watched, Zanika slowly lowered the stone until it was horizontal. Jane saw that there were two small round holes in it, rather like eyes. She heard Zanika speaking again.

"Normally I would remain here until you return… but with everything that's happened today, I cannot. So… should you decide to leave Dream without getting the answer you seek, you will have to return later without help. Should you need to do so, simply focus on the eyes of the Ancestors and you should be able to travel there."

Zanika's face appeared upside down in Jane's field of view.

"Ready?" Jane nodded. "Good. Then take a deep breath, relax, and focus on the eyes in the stone above you."

Zanika drew her head back, allowing Jane a clear view of the stone above her. She breathed deeply, settled back into the bed and looked up at the stone.

For several seconds, nothing happened. Then, as Jane watched, a white glow appeared behind the eyes, seeming to expand as she watched until it had swallowed her.

* * *

Zanika looked intently at Jane's inert body for several seconds, then turned back to Jordan, Rachel, Maddy and Brittany.

"I don't know how long she'll be there for. I suggest that at least one of you wait here for her return – she will most likely feel a little poorly. I must go with my sisters to alert the village. The life stone is missing from the root chamber – our world is in grave danger without that stone. Anya is in the Hall of Spirits if you need her. The best of luck to you."

With a swish of her robes, Zanika vanished down the stairs. Jordan, Rachel, Maddy and Brittany immediately buried themselves in discussion.

"Achenar was carrying a stone when we saw him," said Maddy immediately. "Do you think that's something to do with this – what was it? Life stone?"

"Could be," muttered Jordan. "I think we need to go find this journal he was talking about. It could help explain what's going on."

"Right," said Maddy. "And I think that one of us should go find Anya and ask her about this stone. Zanika didn't say why it was so important."

"Okay," said Rachel. "Here's what I think what we should do. Jordan, go find Achenar's journal. Maddy, head over to the Hall of Spirits and see if you can find Anya, and ask her about this stone. And Britt, I think you should go back to Tomahna and try and get in touch with Atrus. I'll stay here and wait for Jane."

"Achenar said not to -"

"No, I'm with Rach," interrupted Maddy. "I trust Achenar about as far as I could throw him. Try and get in touch with Atrus – he might be able to help, and he needs to know what's going on."

* * *

Hardly daring to blink, let alone move, Jane remained perfectly still. All around her was white. Before she knew what was happening, though, she felt her stomach rise – she was falling, the whiteness was spinning around her, and below her, a point of complete darkness appeared. As she fell, the darkness expanded and the whiteness receded. She closed her eyes, but this seemed to have no effect – the whiteness seemed to shine through her eyelids, the darkness welled up below her until the whiteness was but a pinprick in the darkness – and then it was gone, and the falling sensation stopped. The darkness enveloped her. It was not cold, nor was it warm. She looked around, but there was no point of reference and she could hardly tell that she was moving her eyes at all. She couldn't feel anything; when she raised her hand in front of her face, it didn't seem like a hand at all – more like a vague outline of her hand.

And then, through the darkness, a voice rung out, or seemed to ring out. It was a rich, deep voice, but soft, as though someone was whispering into a microphone, and it somehow comforted and terrified her at the same time.

_Not what you expected, is it, Traveller?_

Jane tried to pinpoint the source of the voice, but it was impossible – it was as though it had come from everywhere and nowhere at the same time.

_You are here because you want to find the answer to something that troubles you,_ continued the voice. _Why, then, wouldn't Dream seem dark and mysterious at first?_

A small pinpoint of light slid into view. The light itself was very small, but radiated out into a small circle around it. In the very centre of the circle was a face, or at least, that's what it looked like. The eyes were the same ornate eyes as she had seen in the tornado back on Serenia, and the mouth was a small gaping hole. The tilt of the eyes and the shape of the mouth made the face look as though it was in severe pain. Jane knew immediately, although she wasn't sure how she knew, that this must be her guide.

_Do not be afraid_, continued the guide. _The fragrance of your offering still lingers… it pleases me. So I shall light this darkness for you, and lead you to the ones you call the Ancestors._

All around Jane, the darkness was suddenly lit by glowing grey strands, ever shifting and flowing. They seemed close, but it was as though there was a shield of sorts around Jane, projected by the guide.

_Dream is an ever-changing place_, said the guide. _The strands are never still, always moving. If a Traveller comes here unshielded, they will be crushed by the strands, with no way back to the waking world. That means instant death_, he added, in response to the question that formed in Jane's mind. _Travelling in Dream is only safe if you are with me, or one of my brothers. We can shield you from the strands, and guide you through the darkness._

As Jane watched, something appeared through the darkness – it appeared to be a cluster of orange sparks, moving through the strands. It approached Jane and her guide, but did not seem dangerous.

_That is not an Ancestor_, said the guide. _Like you, she is a Traveller here, guided by my brother. She does not have the power to shape Dream._

The sparks drifted past, and from the other direction, a cluster of tiny bubbles approached.

_Another Traveller. Many come here, for many reasons. Some come seeking answers, or to speak with loved ones. Some come simply to distract themselves from their waking life._

_But come – I sense the approach of one who can shape Dream for you._

Jane was expecting that they would move through the strands, and she thought that that was probably what happened, but it felt more like the strands moved around her. A small white cloud came into view, and they stopped near it. There was silence for a second, then the guide spoke again.

_How… odd. This is not an Ancestor. She does not yet have the power to influence Dream. But she is not a Traveller either, as I can sense no waking mind to return to. It's almost as though the connection between her mind and her memories has been severed prematurely._

The guide paused. _I do not understand how this can be possible, but this must be the one you are seeking._

"Those are… that is… Yeesha?" When Jane spoke, she couldn't hear any sound coming from her mouth, but her voice instead seemed to ring out in the same way as the guide's did.

_Yes._

Behind the white cloud, more clouds flowed in from the darkness, in all manner of colours – red, yellow, green, blue, purple – and slowly joined the white cloud to form a ring around Jane and her guide.

_These are the Ancestors. They are willing to shape Dream for you, and show you the answer you need, but they will need your help. By touching one, you can impart some of your own energy to it. That will make it change colour. When all are as one, their combined wisdom will show you the answer. Go on, try it._

Jane reached up her hand and brushed the nearest ancestor tentatively. A very slight tingle ran through her fingers, and the cloud changed from green to yellow.

_Yes, that's it. I will be silent until you succeed. However, if you do grow too frustrated, and need to take a break, signal me by touching your amulet. I will then immediately send you back to Serenia, but without the answer you need._

With that, the guide fell silent. Jane, now much less apprehensive than she was upon arriving in this bizarre place, turned her attention to the clouds.

* * *

Maddy found Anya in the courtyard outside the Hall of Spirits. She had just rung the bell under the archway, and was on her way back to the Hall, when Maddy found her.

"How goes the young lady?"

For a second, Maddy thought that Anya meant her, but quickly realised that she was referring to Jane.

"Well, she's off dreaming now. Hopefully she comes back with whatever it is we need to find out."

"Good, good." Anya looked a little distracted, and Maddy could guess why.

"Anya – what's so important about the life stone?"

Anya did not look surprised in the slightest that Maddy had asked this. She smiled.

"I assume that Zanika mentioned it?" Maddy nodded. "Yes… well, the life stone is kept in the root chamber under the water pool over there." Anya gestured to the area beyond the Memory Chamber. "The stone keeps the Memory Chamber nourished and healthy, so she can collect and store our memories when we die. Without the stone, the chamber will steadily weaken and eventually die. The death of the chamber would mean we would be unable to store new memories or access the memories we currently have stored. To our civilisation, which revolves around these memories and the chamber… it would mean total chaos and the eventual collapse of our society."

"Oh god." Maddy had not expected an answer quite as drastic as this. "There's no spare stone?"

"No," replied Anya. "There are more stones in the southern hills, but it takes some time to find them, and without a stone the chamber will die within a day or two. Once your young friend retuns from Dream, I will need to close the Memory Chamber until this is all over."

"If the chamber dies," said Maddy, "is there any way to… salvage the memories?"

"Yes," said Anya, "but we would have to establish a new chamber, and it takes several weeks to do so. The chambers live for a very long time, but they do not last forever. The current chamber is the second one used by our people. You may have seen the old withered flower, on the other side of the root chamber? It was the first Memory Chamber. When a chamber gets too old, however, it has to be abandoned, as the pollen produced by the flower becomes highly toxic in its old age. But it's still alive, and theoretically capable of functioning properly if a way could be found to contain the pollen."

"Would the memories you have stored be destroyed if the chamber dies?"

"No, they wouldn't, as they're stored externally, in memory globes. But without a chamber, we can't access the globes. The transfer of memories into globes has to be done very soon after death, or the memories will be lost. So in short," finished Anya heavily, "we really need the stone back."

* * *

Jane reached out and touched the last of the Ancestors. The cloud shifted to white. She was now surrounded by a mass of white clouds.

_You have succeeded_, said the guide immediately. The clouds flowed back from Jane, and collected a short distance from her into a single large cluster.

_I can feel the Ancestors' wisdom at work. Now pay attention – you will never see this revelation again._

The Ancestors formed two clusters, which solidified into large white dots. Each of these split into three smaller dots, each with a different colour – red, green and blue, and yellow, purple and cyan. These dots then turned white, and they formed a ring of six triangles, all glowing white.

_The answer has been seen_, said the guide. _There can be no turning back. Farewell, Traveller, and good luck._

The Ancestors vanished. The guide's light faded, and Jane was floating in darkness again – but not for long. As suddenly as before, her stomach dropped, and she was flying upwards, towards a pure white dot that grew larger and larger, pushing the darkness back below her. The whiteness enveloped her again, and she rose through the blinding light, faster and faster. And then, with a jolt, she stopped. She could feel every ache in her body again, except the sensations were so much more pronounced. Gasping for air, she sat up, blinking.

The Memory Chamber swam into focus around her. Her head ached and a cold sweat had broken on her brow. She felt a hand grasp her wrist, and a water bottle was pushed into her hand. She drank gratefully, and wiped her brow on her sleeve, still breathing heavily. She looked up and saw Rachel sitting beside her, looking concerned.

"Are you all right?"

"Yeah… I'll be fine," replied Jane. She drank more water, then handed the bottle back to Rachel.

"So… what happened?"

"That was…" Jane paused, searching for words. "That was the strangest thing I've ever done."

"What about this message you had to see?"

"Oh, right. It was…" Jane described what she had seen in Dream as they walked slowly down the stairs and out into the cool evening air.

"So what does it mean?"

"You're back!"

They had encountered Maddy and Anya coming the other way. They stopped to talk further.

"I had hoped to discuss your experience in Dream," said Anya to Jane. "But… you can't always count on hopes, can you? Not when so much of what the Ancestors have shown us has already come true." She sighed. "The others have gone to alert the village… I must go inside and protect the memories."

Anya strode past them and into the Memory Chamber, grabbing the heavy wooden doors on either side and beginning to pull them closed.

"You can't help us?"

"I wish there was another way," said Anya by way of reply. "But in all our dreams, the last task always fell to you." She paused, with the doors almost closed. "The best of luck… and be careful." The doors closed. There was a heavy click from the other side as she locked them.

Rachel, Maddy and Jane hurried up the stairs and found Brittany and Jordan outside the Hall of Spirits. Jordan was clutching a battered brown book.

Jane relayed what she had seen in Dream to them again, as they went and sat down in their now usual spot near the pond. When she had finished, Rachel asked the question all of them were thinking.

"What does it mean?"

"I don't know," replied Jane. "I thought that going to Dream would explain everything; where Yeesha is and how to save her. But I still have no idea. It's sort of led nowhere."

"I don't know about this whole revelation either," said Jordan, "but I think I might know where Yeesha is. This journal talks about their plan, which looks like it originally involved Atrus. Sounds like Sirrus and Achenar were collaborating, then had a big fight and went their separate ways again. It looks like they managed to get into the old Memory Chamber. Listen to this bit."

Jordan flicked the journal open and read out loud. "'In theory, all it has to do is stimulate the old fungus into doing what it does naturally – removing a person's memories. But in order for our entire plan to work, we have to keep Father's body alive before, during and after the process so that one of us can use it later. I'm not even sure the fungus will be able to remove memories from a living body.'"

Brittany digested all this. "You're saying that… they're going to somehow use the old chamber to remove Atrus' memories and replace them with their memories?"

"It looks like that was their original plan, yes," replied Jordan. "But now it looks like one of them is using it to remove Yeesha's memories and replace them with their own."

Jane swore. Rachel was equally stunned by this theory and did not try to correct her.

"Wait," said Maddy. "Anya told me that the flower in the old chamber gives off some really nasty pollen. How are they using the chamber without dying?"

"He talks about that as well," said Jordan. "I think he enclosed the flower in some sort of airtight chamber to contain the fumes."

There was silence among the group. All of them realised that Jordan's theory was almost certainly right.

"Britt? Did you get in touch with Atrus?"

"No," said Brittany. "Still too much interference on the Viewer. But it's clearer than before."

"When I was in Dream," said Jane, suddenly remembering, "my guide pointed out something that he said was Yeesha. He said something about the connection between her mind and memories being broken."

"That's pretty bad. I think we need to get down to this chamber quickly," said Maddy. "It sounds like we might already be too late, but maybe we can still reverse whatever's happened."


	10. Substitute

**9 – Substitute**

He checks his watch. Hurries downstairs. He's pleased – very pleased. Removal of the girl's memories went smoother than he was expecting. Life support systems running nicely. Of course, he'll need to hurry – if one of the Protectors happens upon the girl's memories in the dream-world, there'll be trouble. But he's got time to -

He opens the door and steps outside, making very sure to lock the door tightly behind him. He turns around – and – there's five people looking at him. It's them!

He knows full well that he failed to conceal the shocked expression on his face, and the five of them look equally shocked. Okay… this is bad. His brain, ever sharp despite twenty years of isolation, hurtles through a collection of different responses ranging from "Look, I can explain" to "What are you doing here" and decides that they are all equally bad.

"It's you – thank god you've come!" His voice is jumping around all over the place, but begins to settle down as he hits his stride.

"Achenar has kidnapped my little sister – he says he'll kill her if," he hesitates for the tiniest fraction of a second, searching for a convincing reason, and settles on his brother's greed, "if I don't help him steal Serenia's treasures." Not his most brilliant improv ever, but under the circumstances he'll take what he can get. They're certainly not throwing accusations at him, although they are sharing slightly confused glances. Maybe Achenar got to them already – curse the luck! Never mind – too late to back down now. He presses on, hoping to convince them.

"Look, I know you have no reason to trust me. You saw me blow up the Harvester, but I only did it to stop Achenar from poisoning the Memory Chamber… his confinement on Haven drove him completely insane. Now, all he cares about is destroying everything my father created. We have to stop him." He takes a breath, thinking furiously. He's bought himself a few seconds thinking time, so long as he can make it look like he's trying to think of a plan. It comes easily.

"Go back to Tomahna – find my father, explain everything that's happened here." Wait – Achenar will have told them not to do that. "For some reason Achenar is terrified of Father." That sounded a bit lame, but it'll have to do. "Maybe if you bring him here, then we could somehow lure my brother into a trap. I'll try and get Yeesha away from him while you're gone. Now go! Quickly! Before it's too late." He's grabbed the door handle. Slipped back inside the Memory Chamber. Locked the door.

Part of him wants to breathe a sigh of relief, but there's hardly time for that. The five of them are smarter than that. They won't take his word for it. There's only one thing for it – got to do the transfer now, quickly, before they get in. If he can take control of the girl's body before they get here, he might just be able to convince them.

* * *

"Doesn't change the plan," said Jordan, effectively summing up their discussion. "We've still got to get in there."

"What if he's telling the truth?" asked Maddy, although she sounded like she was only saying it because nobody else had and someone really should.

"Then there'll be six of us against Achenar." Jordan tried the door. It was, as expected, locked. "But somehow I don't think that's going to be the case. I mean, why would he have locked us out, for one thing?"

"Achenar's journal said that there's another door," said Brittany. "We'll have to try and get through there, I suppose."

"Hold on -" Maddy backed up a few steps and swung a kick at the door. Despite its age, it held without protest, and Maddy fell backwards onto the ground, muttering darkly.

"Ouch. Yep, okay. Back door."

* * *

He sprints up the stairs. The girl's body is still slumped in the chair. He checks the life support systems – everything's online for the chair. He powers up the systems for the cryo chamber. It'll take them a minute to boot up. In the meantime, he's setting the failsafes. Checking the memory calibrations – he'll need to latch onto the girl's memories as soon as he enters the dreamworld. If something goes wrong there, the failsafe should kick in and send him back to his own body – but he doesn't have time for that to happen; they'll be here by then.

Life support online. Failsafes active. Ready? There's only one possible answer.

He breathes deeply. Presses the switch. Darts downstairs. Climbs into the cryo chamber. The internal HUD springs to life. A reassuring robotic voice rings out.

"Life support systems online. Ready for memory transfer."

He takes a deep breath, finds the button near his right hand and presses it.

"Life support active." A gust of cold air blows up from his feet. The window over his face fogs up slightly. "Commencing memory transfer."

He waits, breath baited, half of his mind thinking something's going to go wrong. And then – then there was a sensation of falling forward, and he was surrounded by white light. A sickening lurch, and he's falling down now, into the darkness.

The darkness is absolute, and he's not sitting well in it. He feels something almost like strong wind, striking him from all sides… and he can almost see the wind, if he shuts his eyes – glowing white strands striking him from every direction, writhing around him. It's almost painful – but he's remaining still. Risking a glance around, he sees what looks like a small white cloud below him, tethered to him by glowing cables. Yes – it worked. Perfect. Now… one way or another, it won't be long. Either something goes wrong, the failsafe trips and he's back in the cryo chamber, or -

Another sickening lurch, and he's jerked upwards. The cables tethering him to the girl's memories vanish. The wind closes in, but he's already rising into the whiteness again, leaving the shifting darkness far below him. The whiteness closes in, shifting, writhing, and then -

He blinks. He's in the upstairs room… in the chair. Everything feels wrong – which, of course, means that everything is right.

"Memory transfer complete. Chair life support idle. Failsafes reset."

It's worked. He can hardly believe it. Of course, he had little doubt in his own skills, but you never knew.

Now, maybe he can head off the strangers. If he hurries, he'll -

Oh.

Damn it! He knew he'd forgotten something! The one thing, the one thing he didn't change so it could work with just one person!

Wait… maybe this could work to his advantage. After all, wouldn't it look suspect if the girl suddenly came running downstairs? Yes… of course it would. If he waits for them, and convinces them to free him… yes. Yes.

* * *

Crammed into the damp, slightly smelly underwater tunnel, Maddy pressed the small button on the door. The panels slid open with a snap to reveal a small round grid with coloured marbles around the outside, connected by small channels.

Peering over her shoulder, Jane gave a muffled exclamation of surprise.

"I've seen this before! In Dream – a grid of white circles, like this one. Six triangles of three circles each, arranged in a circle."

"But none of the marble things are white," pointed out Brittany, perfectly reasonably.

"Yeah… but I also saw how three different colours can make white if you combine them. Red, blue and green, and purple, yellow and cyan. Those are the colours of the marbles."

"I think I get what you're saying," said Rachel. If we arrange the marbles into triangles, with each one containing one of those sets of colours, that's how to open the door. But how do we know which sort of triangle goes where? And which order the colours should be in?"

"I don't know," admitted Jane.

"I think I do," said Maddy slowly, rummaging in her pockets. Eventually, she located what she was looking for – a small round medallion, made out of what looked like silver but was actually some sort of aluminium alloy. In a circle around the edge of it were six circles in various different colours.

"Where'd you get that?"

"Spire," replied Maddy. "It was on the elevator, remember, Rach?"

"Oh yeah," replied Rachel. "We thought it was just some trinket, and Mad thought it looked pretty, so she kept it."

"I think that these colours are the colours of the marbles we have to put on the inside ring of this lock," said Maddy. "Then we match up the outer ring with the rest of the marbles so we get the triangles Jane was talking about."

Without a better plan, and with time marching on relentlessly, they decided that this was worth a try at least. It took them several minutes of shifting marbles to match everything up. They were, they had to admit, surprised when it worked first time, and the door opened with a rattle.

* * *

The inside of the old Memory Chamber was not exactly what the five strangers had been expecting. The mixture of weathered chiselled Serenian stone and gleaming modern machinery was unusual. The layout of the room was largely the same as that of the new Memory Chamber. To their left was the outside door, with the key still in the lock; ahead of them, a flight of stairs; to their right, directly across from the door, a heavy steel capsule with a glass window in it. Inside this, they saw as they peered through the window, was a small glass cylinder, housing the ancient plant that was the heart of the chamber. The plant was partially obscured by a thick green gas inside the glass cylinder, but they could still see it, twitching occasionally.

"That must be the pollen," muttered Maddy. "Clever. Don't open the door, Jordan."

"I wasn't planning to."

"Come on," said Rachel in a low whisper, "we've got to hurry. Upstairs."

The upstairs room was quite small, and packed with machinery. Lights flickered over control panels, and constant beeping filled the air. And seated in a tall-backed metal chair, struggling with the restraints on her wrists and ankles, was Yeesha.

"Achenar, you -" She looked up, and saw the five of them crammed into the doorway. "It's you! You've come to rescue me! There's a lever over there that'll set me free, but hurry, before Achenar comes back!"

The five strangers moved into the room, which was really not designed to hold six people plus all this machinery at the same time. Jane, who brought up the rear, wound up closest to the main control panel that Yeesha had indicated. There were two levers set into it – a silver one, made of what looked like aluminium, and a dull gold one, made of some sort of brass.

"Which one?" said Jordan.

"The silver one," replied Yeesha, tugging hard with her right arm and managing – somehow – to pull her wrist out of the clamp. "Pull it and you'll -"

"NO! Stop!" roared a deep voice from the staircase, and Achenar rounded the corner into the room. He was out of breath and looked like he'd sprinted most of the way over, but his eyes were steely and determined. The potmarked stone was in his left hand, but the five strangers were more interested in his right hand, which held a small crossbow and was currently pointing in the general vicinity of Yeesha's temple. Despite this, the five strangers all took a step backwards, except Maddy, who tried to do so and fell over a table.

"This," said Achenar, still getting his breath back, "is not Yeesha!"

"What?" said Jane, Brittany and possibly-Yeesha at the same time.

"Sirrus used the machine," Achenar charged on. "He forced the Memory Chamber to remove all of her memories, and then he planted his own memories inside her head!"

"No! You're lying!"

"This is Sirrus!" shouted Achenar, ignoring Yeesha.

"This is crazy!"

The strangers shared slightly panicked glances. This had suddenly gotten a lot more dangerous for all five of them. On one hand, there was no way of knowing who was really sitting in the chair, and Achenar's story certainly matched what they had deduced from his journal; on the other, Yeesha's record of trustworthiness was much more glowing than Achenar's.

Yeesha turned to appeal to the strangers as well. "He killed Sirrus when Sirrus tried to save me!"

"Oh, seriously, would I kill my own brother?"

"Yes!"

"No!" roared Achenar, his crossbow arm stiffening, causing all five strangers and Yeesha to flinch. Achenar noticed this, and relaxed slightly, lowering his crossbow a little. "I'm telling you, this is Sirrus!"

"Look," said Yeesha, in a less frantic voice, casting her eyes to the stone in Achenar's left hand, "he's got the life stone. Serenia's Memory Chamber can't survive without the -"

"SHUT UP!" roared Achenar, raising his crossbow again. Yeesha looked at him with terror.

"I'm your little sister," she said in a very small voice. Achenar gave her a look of pure hatred before swinging his arm around and directing his crossbow at Jane's temple instead.

"He's just playing games with you!" growled Achenar. Jane looked back at him with terror.

"You see?" shouted Yeesha, a note of triumph edging her voice. "He's a killer!"

Achenar, apparently realising his mistake in physically threatening the strangers, appeared to deflate very slightly, and he lowered and sheathed his crossbow.

"No… no!" He held up the life stone. "I told you before! I only stole this to stop Sirrus from hurting Father. But I was wrong! He was after Yeesha all along!"

"No, no! He kidnapped me, not Sirrus!"

"Look!" shouted Achenar, silencing Yeesha. "We've got to put everybody's memories right again, quickly! The amber lever."

"No!"

"Pull the amber lever to start the transfer!"

"No, you'll kill me if you do that!"

"Hurry!" roared Achenar, fire in his eyes now. "Before the Chamber gets too weak to power the transfer!"

"No, please! Don't listen to him!"

Both Yeesha and Achenar were frantic now. The five strangers shared confused, panicked looks. Jane, still in front of the levers, looked down at them, and then back up at Achenar. Although she was only ten, Jane was very skilled at reading a person's eyes, scanning them for emotion. As she looked at Achenar's wild face, she saw many things behind his eyes. Panic, obviously. Fear. But – no insanity. Achenar's eyes were completely sane, albeit streaked with panic. And there was something else, something… almost primal. Protectiveness. And a hint – just a hint – of familial love.

When Jane cast her gaze onto Yeesha, she saw similar things – panic, terror, sanity. But her eyes were cold. There was no warmth behind Yeesha's eyes, none of what was usually there. No love – but there was lust, and hunger. Jane knew Yeesha, better than anyone else. These eyes? They weren't right.

Jane swallowed, and looked down at the levers again. With determination, and ignoring the frantic discussion going on behind her, she raised her right arm, grasped the sleek brass handle and pulled.

There was a clunk, and lights flickered over the control panel. A sleek female voice rings through the speakers.

"Chair life support active. Warning: failsafes offline. Commencing memory transfer in fifteen seconds."

"No, you fool!" shouted not-Yeesha. "My performance was perfect!"

Achenar breathed a sigh of relief and slumped slightly.

"Thank you," he growled, but not menacingly – it seemed like his natural voice tone was a growl.

"Five seconds. Four. Three -"

"You might have won this round, brother," hissed not-Yeesha, "but this isn't over yet."

"Commencing memory transfer."

Yeesha's eyes closed, and her head lolled back. Her chest rose and fell only in a very shallow, almost unnoticeable, rhythm. Achenar was suddenly tense again, and he looked up at the roof.

"No! Sirrus, don't!" There was no response. Achenar shuffled over to Yeesha's unconscious body and placed two fingers on her neck, evidently feeling for a pulse. He then turned to the small screen on the other side of the console with the levers on it and started jabbing at it. It made beeping sounds in protest.

"Oh, god… something's gone wrong…" The strangers elected to maintain their silence, as Achenar seemed to have forgotten all about them – something which they weren't entirely ungrateful for.

"Yeesha's memories should be coming back… but they're not. Sirrus must be… holding her there, somehow. God, there's got to be some way I can reach her." His eyes fell upon something behind the strangers. "If only I had a -"

There was a muffled booming sound from deep within the building. Several lights exploded, and the floor shook violently, causing Jane to squeal.

"Attention," said the calm female voice from the speakers, "Memory Chamber power levels dropping. Failure of fungus: imminent."

"Oh no," muttered Achenar, "not now. Not now! The Memory Chamber can't fail now!" He paused, and looked down at the stone in his hand. A look of grim determination made its way onto his face, and he looked up at the strangers, leaning over the console.

"Listen to me," he said in a low growl, "the Memory Chamber is dying. If it dies, it'll stop the transfer."

"What will that do to Yeesha?" asked Rachel.

"I don't know," said Achenar, "but… it could kill her. Look, I can keep the Chamber alive using the stone, but if Sirrus is holding Yeesha in the Dreamworld, her memories still won't come back. You have to find some way to reach her, to release her from him so the Chamber can restore her memories."

"How -"

"I don't know! But it's our only chance!" Achenar pointed to another metal chair, behind the five strangers, which had a stone like the one in the new Memory Chamber above it. "Use the other chair to get there, but you've got to hurry. I don't know how much time I can buy you with the stone." He turned away from them and cast a quick glance at Yeesha before hurrying down the stairs. The strangers shared confused glances.

"Come on," muttered Brittany. The five of them extracted themselves from behind the console and ran down the stairs as fast as they dared.

The lower area of the Chamber was empty. Brittany pointed at the door separating them from the chamber's ancient, deadly heart. The handle had been broken off.

The five of them approached the window and peered through. There, indeed, was Achenar. He circled the enclosed flower once, then stopped. He took a deep breath, and gripped the life stone with both hands.

"Oh, god!" exclaimed Maddy. "He's going to -"

Before she could finish, Achenar swung the stone at the glass encasing the flower. It shattered, and the deadly green fumes swirled through the air. Almost immediately, Achenar began coughing. He looked up, and saw them at the window. He waved them away with one hand.

"Go!" he roared, voice muffled by the airlock and the pollen. "Save Yeesha!" He fell to his knees, wheezing, and pressed the stone up towards the feebly twitching flower.

The glass fogged up with deadly gas. The strangers pulled away, mortified.

"We've got to hurry," said Brittany sharply. "We don't know how much time we've got. Jane, you've gotta get upstairs, use that chair and get Yeesha out of Dream."

"How?"

"I don't know… but you're smart, you'll think of something. Rach, wait for her and make sure Yeesha's body stays alive. You can do CPR, right?"

"In theory, yes, but -"

"Great. Maddy, get over to the Memory Chamber and find Anya. Even if she can't come over here, tell her what's going on. Jordan, get back to Tomahna and go to the observatory. When I was there earlier I left two books on the table near the viewer. Take the green one – that's a Tomahna linking book, just in case – and use the blue one to get to Rime. Find Atrus, tell him what's happening, and get him here. I'm going to Releeshahn – after that little noble sacrifice, Achenar's going to need a Healer."

Maddy and Jordan nodded. Brittany unlocked the door, and the three of them ran off towards the stone forest. Rachel and Jane went back upstairs.

"Can you get back to Dream without the Protectors?" asked Rachel.

"I think so," replied Jane. "I hope so."

"All right… Well, good luck. Stay safe."

"I'll try." Jane sat down in the vacant chair, took a deep breath and looked up at the eyes in the flat stone above her.

This time, the effect was near-instantaneous. A white glow appeared behind the eyes, expanding, enveloping her in its warmth. She was ready for the falling sensation this time, but that didn't make it any less unpleasant.

* * *

Rachel watched as Jane slumped in the chair. She turned back to Yeesha, who was still breathing very shallowly.

And she waited.


	11. Divergence

**10 – Divergence**

Jane knew what to expect this time – or, at least, she thought she did. She could only assume that Dream would appear broadly the same as last time she had been there. She was right, but she soon found out that she could easily have been wrong.

_You are a most unusual Traveller, my friend_, mused the guide from within the darkness. The same pinpoint of light with the pained face inside slid into Jane's view, and the shifting grey strands around her lit up with soft light.

_The vision you witnessed here last time served you well. And yet still, you see Dream as dark, and slightly dangerous. Why?_

"I don't -"

_I see the answer in your needs_, interrupted the guide. _This time, you are not just looking for visions. You seek the very memories themselves. Ambitious – for a Traveller._

Jane wasn't sure if this was supposed to be a compliment or a snide remark, so she stayed silent.

_The one you know as Yeesha is still here. Her memories have been restricted from returning to her waking mind. You are here to help her._

"Yes."

_Good. Come – I will take you to her._

The grey strands rushed around them again, for longer this time. Unlike on her last visit, she passed no other Travellers on the way – the Serenians were presumably aware of the developing crisis and were staying well clear of Dream in case the Memory Chamber shut down. As Jane thought this, her stomach (at least, what would have been her stomach if she had a conventional body) jolted – what _would_ happen to any Travellers in Dream if the Chamber shut down? What would happen to her if the old Memory Chamber shut down while she was here?

_You are concerned_, murmured the guide, _about the imminent death of the old fungus._

"Yes. What would happen to me if it died right now?"

_I do not know_, replied the guide. _Nobody knows that – not even the Ancestors. That is why the Serenians are not taking the risk. You… you are very brave to come here at a time like this._

"I didn't really have a choice."

_You are willing to risk your life for that of your friend. That is admirable. Nonetheless, it is my duty to protect you, and if I sense the fungus failing I will return you to Serenia without delay, as I have no wish to find out what will happen. Not that I do not enjoy your company._ (Jane thought that she would probably be blushing if she had a body.)

A small dot appeared in the distance, growing quickly larger. Jane and the guide stopped well clear of the object as they approached – Jane quickly saw why. She saw the small white cloud that was Yeesha's memories, but that wasn't all. Hovering over the cloud, tethered to it by glowing white tendrils, was something… monstrous. Huge, glowing orange and pulsating, it looked somewhat like a brain – with hair. Jane flinched.

"What is that?"

_That… is a Traveller._ The guide sounded equally repulsed, and slightly angered.

"Why… why does he look like that?"

_This Traveller has no guide. He is using Yeesha's memories to remain anchored in Dream. Without her, he would be lost, and quickly killed by the endlessly shifting strands of Dream. But… she is not aware of him. If she was, she could throw him off, and she would be free to return to Serenia._

"Why can't she see him?"

_Let me see…_ The guide paused for a second. _Ah, there… you see the memory anchors he's using? The white tendrils?_ Jane nodded. _Those are very strong memories, that both Yeesha and the Traveller have in common. The Traveller has, somehow, scrambled the memories, and is using them to cloak himself._

"So… what can we do?"

_I can do nothing. But if I send you inside the memories, you can play them back in the correct order. That should force the Traveller to reveal himself to her._

"What? How do I do that?"

_I will not be able to instruct you once you are inside the memories, so remember this well. You will see a number of memory fragments when I send you in. All you need to do is arrange them in the right order and play them back._

"All right… that sounds simple enough."

_Good. We have very little time. I will send you into the first memory now. Hurry, and good luck. And… advance apologies, but this may hurt._

Jane felt herself falling forward, and saw the grotesque apparition in front of her expand. She felt a feeling akin to being squeezed down a tight tunnel, and was dimly aware that she had shouted in pain. Blinding light filled her vision for a fragment of a second, and then she was drifting in the grey strands again. Now, however, was different. She was in an enclosed space, and the light was a dull reddish colour. Floating in front of her were a collection of glowing symbols. She reached out and touched one of them.

A very brief crackle echoed through the small space, and then a voice rang out – a familiar voice, that she recognised as Sirrus.

"They break so easily."

This, Jane realised quickly, must be one of the fragments of the memory. She reached out and touched another one. Another crackle, and another voice rang out, this one Yeesha's.

"You should play him."

Jane smiled. Maybe this wouldn't be so hard after all.

* * *

Anya didn't let it show as she transferred memories into backup globes, but she was terrified. The Memory Chamber was weakening, and noticeably, too. It could probably hold out for another day, maybe. The old Chamber was probably well and truly dead by now.

There was a knock on the door. It sounded frantic. Anya stood, cautious.

"Who is it? Identify yourself!"

"It's Maddy!" shouted back a voice from the other side of the door. Anya slid open the small peephole in the door.

"Oh! What's going on? Did you find her?"

"Yes, but Sirrus had removed her memories and replaced them with his, so now Achenar's desparately trying to keep the old Chamber alive long enough to get Yeesha back. Sirrus is doing… something… to keep her in Dream, so Jane had to go in to get her out."

Anya blinked. She was a little behind on current events, as they had decided that Dreaming while the Memory Chamber was fighting for its life was not a good idea.

"Sirrus? And Achenar?"

"Yes, yes, I know, they broke out, it's a long story, we'll tell you later. Point is, we really need you over at the old Chamber."

Anya looked over at her half-finished memory backup. "Look, I can't come right now… I need to finish backing up the memories in case something happens to the Chamber."

"All right… yeah, okay. Just… just come as soon as you can, okay?"

"Okay. I'll be there as soon as I can."

* * *

Atrus peeked out the window. The storm was easing… fairly soon he'd be ready to head off. It was incredibly boring being stuck in this room. At least he had pen and paper. He'd drafted the design for the moving eye attachment he wanted to make for the crystal viewer.

He heard the clatter of the elevator. He frowned. On one hand, that meant it was working again, and he could get back to Tomahna. On the other, that meant that someone else was here, and he wasn't sure he liked that.

He heard the elevator return, and then running footsteps. He stood and looked at the door, which slid open. Jordan entered the room at a jog, clutching what Atrus recognised as a Tomahna linking book in his hand.

"Atrus!"

"My friend, what on earth are you doing here? I was just getting ready to head back."

"It's…" Jordan paused to catch his breath. "There's… a bit of an emergency. We need you on Serenia, sort of right now."

Atrus opened his mouth to say something, then thought better of it. "Lead the way."

* * *

The last of the memory played back seamlessly. Jane grinned, and then there was the squeezing feeling and the bright light again. She was falling backwards this time, and before she knew it she was back looking at the convulsing monstrosity latched onto Yeesha's memories. As she watched, several of the glowing tendrils faded and vanished.

_It's working_, said the guide softly. _There is one more memory. We must hurry. The Traveller is aware of us. He cannot harm us, but he will try to impede you._

"Impede… how?"

_I don't know, but he may try to rescramble the memory, or intimidate you. Fortunately, he has only limited control over the memory. So long as you keep your focus, focus on the memory, you have control. Remember that. Now… hurry._

The squeezing, falling sensation returned, and Jane found herself in another enclosed space, with more memory fragments drifting in front of her. Hastily, she started to play them back and work out the appropriate order.

As she was piecing together the memory, everything suddenly shuddered violently, and Jane lost her focus. There was a deep hissing noise, which resolved itself into Sirrus' voice – not part of the memory, but Sirrus himself.

"_What do you think you're doing, compadre?"_

The fragments of memory that Jane had already pieced together scattered around the space suddenly. She cursed under her breath and started collecting them back up.

"_I can't let you play that memory back, girl. You know what that'll do?"_

"It'll stop you, and release Yeesha," said Jane. "That's all I need to know."

"_You stupid girl,"_ hissed Sirrus, _"I'm not just going to give her back to you, you know. Not when releasing her would also kill me."_

Jane hesitated, for a fraction of a second, and Sirrus pounced. The memory fragments went flying again.

"_Could you do that, girl? Do you really have what it takes to kill a man?"_ sneered Sirrus.

"I won't kill you. Dream will do that. You know it's dangerous to come here unprotected."

"_Ever heard of murder by omission? Can you live with my life on your conscience? Just let it go. Put the memory down, and leave."_

* * *

Irvan hung up his coat and stretched his back. He'd spent the day out in the field, which was always nice. Big advantage to being a Surveyor, that.

There was a knock on the door. He opened it, and found Brittany standing outside, leaning on a walking stick and looking rather out of breath.

"Britt! I wasn't expecting you today. What's going on?"

"I can't explain now, Irv… Is Tamara here?"

"Yeah, she's upstairs."

"Awesome. I have a little situation unfolding that involves Atrus' kids, and we really, really need a Healer. Could she -"

"I'll get her. Come in."

Brittany took the chair that Irvan offered her gratefully and waited. Within a minute, Irvan and his sister, Tamara, came downstairs.

"Brittany – Irv says you need help? What's wrong?"

"It's not me, it's Atrus' children. I don't have time; come on, I'll explain on the way."

"Where are we going?"

"One of Catherine's ages, via Tomahna. It's a long story."

"Mind if I tag along?" asked Irvan.

"Feel free," replied Brittany, "but we've got to hurry."

Irvan grabbed his coat back off the hanger and the three of them made for the common library.


	12. Convergence

_A/N: This chapter and "Divergence" were originally going to be one chapter, but if I had run them together it would have been a bit long._

* * *

**11 – Convergence**

"See this globe, little sister? See how round and smooth and empty it is?"

"_What would your friends say,"_ snarled Sirrus over the memory, _"if they knew you condemned me to die?_"

"When I turn this switch, the chair you're sitting in will activate."

"What would they say," said Jane, grim determination in her voice, "if they knew I left my best friend to the mercy of a psychopath?"

"_Big words for a little girl."_

"Lights will go on."

"_Stop it, girl. Stop it now!"_ Sirrus' voice was edged with desperation now.

"And everything that's you will be sucked out of your body, leaving behind the perfect disguise for me to step into."

"Bite me."

"Father and Mother will teach 'you' the Art… never knowing it's really me who's doing the learning."

"_Look. I'll make you a bargain. I can give you more power than you ever dreamed of. Just think of it. Endless possibilities. Anything you want in life. People bending to your will. And all you've got to do is stop playing that memory."_

"Of course I'll kill them as soon as I know how to write ages."

"You think I'm a sellout now?" spat Jane, enraged but keeping her focus firmly on the memory.

"Then I'll put my new memories back in my body -"

"_Please!"_

"- and no-one will be able to stop me."

The memory shards faded from Jane's hands. She smiled grimly.

"_Oh, you little bitch! God damnit!"_

The space shuddered violently again.

"_You've got my blood on your hands now. You'll have to live with that for the rest of your life, you know?. And I hope it haunts you until your dying day – that you held a man's life in your hands, and chose to kill him."_

The squeezing and falling returned again, and Jane was back in the relative comfort of Dream. The remaining glowing tendrils had vanished, and the massive convulsing thing was drifting slowly away from them, now detached from Yeesha.

_She is free_, said the calm voice of the guide, which was a welcome relief to Jane after Sirrus' voice. _You have done very well, Traveller. Yeesha has rediscovered her waking mind. She is returning now._

The white cloud was moving upward. As Jane watched, it was consumed by a sudden flash of white light and disappeared.

_The Traveller cannot follow. Without a guide to shield him, he will be crushed by Dream's endlessly shifting waves of possibility._

The grotesque thing was a fair way away from them now, and Jane could no longer see it clearly, but she saw it lose shape as the grey tendrils closed in on it, and she watched it disintegrate into orange dust.

_I will return you to Serenia now, quickly, before the fungus dies. Farewell, Traveller. I hope to see you again. If I do not, I wish you the best of luck with your waking life._

* * *

Rachel and Maddy sat, tense, in the dark upstairs room. It had been five minutes since Jane had gone into Dream, and there was still nothing.

They heard slow footsteps coming up the stairs, and a hacking, wheezing cough. They hurried to the door, where they found Achenar, crawling up the stairs. He accepted their help gratefully but collapsed on the floor again as soon as they got upstairs.

"Has…" Achenar's voice was hoarse and thick with pollen, and he coughed again. "Has she woken up?"

Rachel didn't know whether he was talking about Jane or Yeesha, but either way, the answer was the same. "No."

"Well… there's nothing more I can do… we just have to hope… that your young lady comes through."

Achenar braced himself on the control console and heaved himself up onto his knees unsteadily. He looked Rachel in the eyes for what she thought was the first time.

"You… take care of them… for me. Both of them… I would have liked… to know them better. My own fault."

"Don't talk like that, Achenar – we've got a Healer coming. You'll be fine."

Achenar tried to laugh, but wound up coughing instead. "You know… you know that's a lie. All the Healers in the world… couldn't help me now."

There was a small beep from the console next to them. The calm female voice returned to the speakers.

"Memory transfer succeeded for subject: Yeesha. Memories for subject: Sirrus could not be located."

Rachel's eyes flicked over to Yeesha. She hadn't woken up, but her breathing was noticeably deeper and more regular.

Achenar smiled. "We did it… it worked."

From behind Rachel, there was a sudden gasp and some panting. She turned around. Jane was sitting up in her chair, sweating. She swallowed and looked over at Rachel, who nodded. Jane smiled, and joined them. She was surprised to see Achenar.

"Achenar – are you -"

"Of course I'm not all right," coughed Achenar, pulling himself to his feet. "And don't look so surprised… you saw me do it. The stone had to be inserted… directly into the shrine… otherwise it wouldn't have worked. And there was no other way to do that." He turned to face Yeesha. "Better this way, you know… all the things I did… better my life than hers."

Yeesha gasped suddenly, and her eyes flicked open. Life came back to her body, and her eyes flicked between Achenar and Rachel, looking terrified. Achenar held up his hand.

"It's okay… Sirrus is dead… it's all over." He collapsed onto his knees, gasping for breath. "Everything's… going to be okay, little sis… it's gonna be okay… it's…"

Achenar's head fell in Yeesha's lap. He was no longer breathing. Yeesha looked at Rachel and Jane, pleadingly. All three had tears in their eyes.

Running footsteps echoed from the staircase, and Atrus burst into the room, followed closely by Jordan.

"Jordan told me what's – Yeesha!" Atrus spotted his (conscious) daughter and rushed in to hug her, then paused. "This is Yeesha – right?"

"Yes," replied Rachel.

"Thank goodness." Atrus embraced his shaken daughter, who was beginning to cry, and then seemed to see the body slumped in her lap for the first time.

"A – Achenar?"

Atrus bent down and checked his son's pulse, then straightened up again, lips pursed. Jane could see in his eyes that he was fighting for control over his emotions. After a few seconds, he swallowed, but did not speak.

More footsteps echoed from downstairs, and Anya entered the room.

"Yeesha! Thank god you're okay." The Protector hugged Yeesha as well, then looked down at Achenar's body.

"Achenar… my god…" She touched Atrus' arm. "I'm so sorry, Atrus."

"Thank you, Anya," said Atrus, slightly hoarsely.

More footsteps, and Brittany entered the room, followed by Irvan and Tamara. Brittany's eyes immediately went to Achenar.

"Shit, I think we might be too late."

Tamara moved Achenar down to the floor and checked him thoroughly, while everyone else watched in silence. It was a minute before she straightened up.

"Yes. I'm very sorry, Atrus."

Atrus nodded mutely, closed his eyes and steepled his hands below his chin.

"Excuse me… I need a minute." He left the room. They heard the door open and close downstairs. There was silence for several seconds, then Anya spoke.

"I hate to ask something mundane like this at a time like this… but… the life stone. Where's the life stone?"

"Oh!" Rachel had completely forgotten about the life stone. "Downstairs, in the chamber with the flower in it."

"Ah." Anya paused. "That poses something of a problem, then. But we really need that stone back."

"Some sort of noxious gas, is it?" asked Irvan. Anya nodded. "Child's play. Surveyors are trained to deal with that sort of stuff. Mining all the time, and suchlike. I'll run back to Releeshahn, round up some of the hazmat boys. They'll help you out. Give me three tahvotee." He went downstairs.

Tamara turned to Britt. "There's not much more I can do to help, Britt – sorry. I'm going to head home."

"Okay, Tam. Sorry to drag you all the way out here."

"Not a problem. Any time." She went downstairs as well.

Anya offered Yeesha her hand, which Yeesha accepted. They hugged again, then Anya turned to the strangers.

"Thank you all… for making sure Yeesha got through this. Perhaps you should escort her back to Tomahna. I'll wait here for your young man – I don't think I caught his name?"

"Irvan," replied Brittany.

"Right. Irvan. Well, thank you all again. I hope to see you again."

* * *

The strangers took Yeesha downstairs, where they saw Atrus, apparently unaware of them, standing in the corner, deep in his own thoughts.

"You guys go on ahead," murmured Brittany. "Take Yeesha with you to Jordan's; give her something to eat. You don't mind, do you, Jordan? Rachel?"

"Of course not."

"Cause I think it's best if we don't just leave her on Tomahna. I'll talk to Atrus."

The others left quietly. Brittany went over to Atrus.

"Atrus." He looked up. "I think you need to focus on the good here. What you've still got, and what you've gained, not what you've lost."

Atrus chuckled, weakly. "I'm trying, my friend. I really am. But I've lost so much, and gained very little."

"You've got to think of Yeesha. All this has… traumatised her. She can pull through, but she's going to need all the support she can get from you and Catherine." Brittany put her hand on Atrus' elbow and guided him towards the door. "Come on, let's talk."

As they walked up the stairs into the stone forest and over towards the plaza outside the Hall of Spirits, Atrus spoke again. "Can I tell you something, my friend?"

"Of course."

"When you four released me from my prison on K'veer twenty years ago, I went to Myst and burnt the red and blue books. You know that. But every day since, I've wondered if that was the right thing to do. I acted rashly, my friend. I was enraged. I had been betrayed by my own sons, who I had trusted with my life's work. To use one of your expressions from the surface, I saw red."

"What choice did you have? They did betray you."

By this time they had reached the Hall of Spirits. They sat down on the benches near the pond as Atrus continued.

"I had every choice, my friend. Preserve the books. Bring them to K'veer. And wait, to make the decision with Catherine. She… has never truly forgiven me for that. Yes, we've moved on, resolved to start fresh, wipe the slate, but that is impossible. We replaced our home, we had a daughter… we started a new life. But you can't erase the memories of what once was, and we have never forgotten what was, although we have tried. Eventually, we gave up. Perhaps, we thought, we can combine our new and old lives. Rebuild bridges once burnt… literally. We tried so hard to make things work. But we failed. And those three words, my friend, are the story of our life since Myst. We tried. But we failed. And I don't know where we can go from here."

Brittany sighed. "Atrus, I never thought I would say this… but you're wrong. You haven't failed. You didn't fail. Perhaps you didn't succeed in reforming Sirrus. But when it came down to it, Achenar laid down his life to save Yeesha's. Yeesha loved her brothers, and Achenar at least loved her back. You brought your family together. By bringing Sirrus and Achenar back into your life, you showed you were willing to leave the past in the past and move on with life. Achenar, at least, was ready to accept. Even if Sirrus wasn't, that isn't your fault. You tried. You can't make the past go away by ignoring it. You can only do that by embracing it."

"But what now, my friend? Where do we go from here?"

"You have to move on with your lives. Give Yeesha the love she needs to move on from this. Seeing her grow, seeing her move on… that'll help you move on."


	13. Awakening

**12 – Awakening**

The silent group of mourners swathed in black stood outside town, their heads bowed. At the head of the group, the D'ni preacher, flanked by Atrus and Catherine. Behind them, Jane and Yeesha, the former with her arm around the latter's shoulders. Behind them, Jordan, Rachel, Maddy and Brittany. Behind them, a small group consisting of Irvan, Tamara and Tamon of the D'ni, Anya of the Serenians, and Nelah of the Rivenese, as well as a few other people. They were silent as the preacher completed his address, and remained silent for several respectful moments. Finally, Atrus raised his head.

"Thank you all," he said gravely. "Please, if you can, join us for a light meal at the Writer's Guild hall."

The crowd raised their heads, and a dull murmur of conversation started up as the crowd broke ranks and slowly began to trickle back towards the glittering city. Atrus and Catherine remained, staring down at the two graves. Atrus eventually broke the silence.

"I am so sorry, my love."

"There's nothing to be sorry about, Atrus."

"But there is. Perhaps if I'd been more… willing… to mend things with Sirrus, this wouldn't have happened."

"You were right to be sceptical, my love." Catherine touched Atrus' arm lightly. "If anyone is to blame here, it's me. I should never have pressed you to reopen the links, to re-establish ties… I was too short-sighted to see past them, time and time again."

"No," replied Atrus, "it was natural to want to mend things with them. We both need to share in the blame here, and move on… for our sakes, and Yeesha's."

Catherine nodded. "You're right, of course… but it'll be hard. For everyone."

* * *

In the bustle of the Releeshahn city, nobody in the group noticed Jane slip away and dart over to the common library. In the few days since Sirrus' death, she had been in a constant state of mental turmoil, and didn't feel comfortable confiding in anyone – not her parents, not Maddy, Brittany, Atrus or Catherine, not even Yeesha – for fear of being judged for it. This morning, as they stood on the hill outside the city, she had realised where she could go to escape this, and who she could tell.

The library was filled with a few D'ni going about their daily business, but nobody paid Jane any mind as she located the book linking to Tomahna. It was, like the other commonly-used books, nestled in a corner of the library on its own stand, open to the glowing last page. She stepped through the panel, breathing the warm afternoon desert air for a few seconds before moving into Atrus' study, opening the book sitting on the stand behind the desk and linking through again.

She met nobody as she passed through the stone forest, and the Memory Chamber was as silent and empty as ever, the doors once again standing open. She made her way slowly up the stairs to the stone bed, slowly turned the handle to lower the flat stone above the bed, then lay down and looked up, breathing slowly and deeply.

The transition into Dream was not nearly as unpleasant as the last times she had visited, and before she knew it she was floating in darkness yet again.

_We meet again, my friend_, rang out the deep, soothing voice of the guide. _You are troubled._

"Yes," replied Jane quietly, feeling much more at ease than she had for several days now.

_You are unhappy with your decision to condemn the intruder to death._ It was, as ever, not a question. Jane nodded, unsure if the guide could actually see her. _I sympathise._

"I was hoping, um…"

_That I could help you move past it._ Jane swallowed and nodded again. _I can only try and help you see that you made the right decision._

"Could I have… saved him? Saved them both?"

_I am afraid not. You could not have saved him, whatever you did. Not once the fungus started to die._

"Why not?"

_The intruder – Sirrus – used his machines to force himself into Dream. He had no guide; he was only protected from being crushed by anchoring himself to her. He was forcing the fungus to work in ways it normally does not, and twisting the rules of dreaming to his own end. But when he tried to block the transfer, and the fungus started to die, his machines did not know how to respond. His machine allowed him to force memories in and out of Dream, but they relied entirely on the fungus, and when the fungus started to die, his machines could no longer locate him. He had no choice but to cling to Yeesha and hope that the fungus became strong enough to complete the transfer. Yeesha, on the other hand, was safe in Dream, with my brother protecting her. Once you released her from Sirrus, my brother was able to immediately send her back to Serenia. But Sirrus, having no guide to help him return, was doomed._

"But… what if I hadn't done anything? What if I'd let him hang on to her?"

_Then, eventually, the fungus would have died. I would have been forced to return you to Serenia, but Sirrus and Yeesha would have remained here, tethered to each other. And if you remain here for too long, it becomes dangerous – your waking mind will begin to decay if left for too long. Serenians spend only fifteen minutes at a time here before we send them back, but if the fungus died we would likely not be able to, and Sirrus' machines would not have been able to retrieve him. Even if, somehow, the fungus was resurrected and the connection reopened, their waking minds would have incurred irreversible damage in the interim._

"Wait… so… would Sirrus' plan have worked, then?"

_Not in exactly the way he planned. I cannot speak for the part about tricking his parents into believing he was Yeesha – that has nothing to do with Dream, of course. But if he remained as Yeesha for several years, it would not have been healthy for his own body. His machines kept the body alive, of course, but they did nothing for the mind. He would have returned here, years later, and found himself likely unable to return to his own body._

"Do you think… do you think I did the right thing?"

_Yes. And furthermore, the fact that you are so conflicted about this speaks volumes about you. Many people wouldn't have thought twice about letting him die, but you recognised that you should avoid doing so if possible. You only let him die because, as I have said, you had no other choice. That is admirable._

"But do you think he deserved to die?"

_It is not my place to judge the crimes of others. Many would say yes. You, as I have said, clearly disagree._

Jane hesitated briefly. "If he hadn't tried to stop the transfer…"

_The transfer is a quick process,_ replied the guide. _It would more than likely have completed before the fungus started to die._

"So…"

_So, more than likely, he would have lived. She would have lived. And I suspect that the third one, the one called Achenar, would also have lived. So, in a way, Sirrus condemned himself to death._

Jane considered this silently, and she felt comfortable. She doubted that the memory of the event would ever leave her completely, but she did feel better.

"Thanks." She smiled slightly.

_You are welcome._

"Another thing… the way the Serenians talk about death."

_When someone close to you dies_, said the guide, _the sadness you feel is not specifically because they are dead. You are sad because you will not be able to see them, speak with them again. But the Serenians have found a way around that, and so, to them, death is not something to mourn._

"Aren't they scared of it, though?"

_No. The reason you fear death is the same reason you fear darkness. You do not fear the thing itself, you fear the unknown. You fear the thing because you fear what it hides. You fear death because you do not know what is beyond. But the Serenians know what lies beyond death – at least, what lies beyond death for them. So they do not fear it._

Jane was silent, pondering the deep philosophy behind this. The silence stretched on, absolute and stifling, but not uncomfortable. After a few minutes, the guide spoke again.

_Much as it is nice to forget about time when you come here, we must, as I said, still observe it. It is time for me to return you to Serenia. I hope I have been of help -_

"You really have, thanks -"

_\- and I will be more than happy to assist you again next time you wish to come here. Farewell, Traveller._

The darkness contracted and rushed around Jane once again as she rose into the blinding light and back into her body. She sat up, almost comfortable with the sensation of dreaming now, stretching her legs. She felt very much as though a weight had been lifted from her mind. Feeling much happier than she had in some time, she set off in the direction of the forest.

* * *

_A/N: So, yeah, it's been a while. I thought I'd better finish this story off rather than leave it hanging, so there'll be one more chapter after this one (hopefully in a few days)._


	14. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

Brittany set down her pen and stood up. A bird called quietly from somewhere in the myriad trees of Eder B'lontahv. She liked it here – it was quiet, peaceful and beautiful, exactly as garden ages were meant to be. Still, they had work to do. She stowed her pen and the deep purple book she'd just finished writing back into her bag. She walked over to the vacant pedestal next to the book linking to the volcano compound. Rummaging in her bag, she pulled out a second book, this one a dull brown-grey. Opening it to the last page, she placed it carefully on the pedestal.

It was nearly six months since the traumatic events on Serenia, and she, Jordan, Rachel and Maddy had all decided they needed something to properly take their minds off what had happened – a project, of sorts, just as this very age had been Atrus' project ten years ago to take his mind off the possible destruction of Releeshahn. And as it so happened, they had a project at their fingertips, ready-made.

Brittany glanced around the serene valley, then down at the open book in front of her. With a small sigh, she pulled her bag up onto her shoulder and laid her hand on the page.

* * *

Jordan sprayed some more polish and cleaner onto the shelf and rubbed at it yet again, but to no avail. With a defeated sigh, he dropped his cloth and set the bottle of cleaner down on the floor.

Behind him, Brittany linked in. Jordan straightened up and turned to greet her.

"How'd it go?"

"Fine," replied Brittany, pulling the purple book out of her bag. "Did you have any luck?"

"No," sighed Jordan. "I don't think we're going to be able to get these burns off without replacing the timber, and I know next to nothing about woodwork."

"I thought that might be the case," replied Brittany, frowning slightly. "It's a shame, but…"

They paused, idly considering the ugly burn that smeared the shelf.

"Maybe … maybe we could put the books there instead," muttered Jordan. "Cover the marks up?"

He took the purple book from Brittany, flicked it open and sat it on the shelf. Lengthwise, the book covered the burn completely, but the burn was quite a bit higher than the book, so some of the burn still showed over the top.

"It's better than nothing," replied Brittany with a shrug. "Any damage to the machinery?"

"Everything in here is fine," said Jordan, gesturing to the faded paintings and map. "The fireplace sounds pretty stiff, mind. It still works, but it might be worth having a look at the machinery and seeing if we can fix it up at all."

"Mhm. What about everything else?"

"Mop's still checking everything else."

On cue, Maddy entered the library, clutching a large grey book.

"Hey Britt. Did you get the book done?"

"Yeah," replied Brittany, nodding at the purple book. "How're the other machines?"

"Well, the cogs and the tree seem fine," said Maddy, setting the grey book down on the shelf at the end of the room. "The ship looks as though it's beginning to develop small leaks. I thought we'd better get the book out of there while we still could. As for the rocket…" She sighed. "Most of the generators are completely dead. The power lines seem okay, but we need to trim the trees around them or we might have some issues. I have no idea how to get in to the generators, though, and even if I could get in I wouldn't have a clue how to fix them."

"We'd better ask Atrus about the generators," muttered Jordan, making a note in a small notebook he'd pulled out. "We might be able to open the rocket with an external generator, but that'd be dangerous… and we need to take care of the trees first, like you say."

The three of them wandered out of the library and into the forest, which was a little overgrown with tall grass but still thick with the intoxicating scent of pine. This, they knew, was their project. Their distraction. For as much as Atrus and Catherine didn't want this island, the four of them wanted its beauty preserved. It had sentimental value. Because this was where, twenty years ago, their lives had changed forever.

Because this was where it all began.


End file.
